Under a Bloody Moon
by Soulweb Knight
Summary: The world has barely recovered from the war with the Angels. NERV's narrow victory of the Angels gave rise of a new power, a pharmaceutical company known as MBI. With a madman at their helm MBI unleashes an alien race upon an unsuspecting populace, forcing NERV to race to contain the problem even as other far older and fouler powers return in the midst of that secret tournament.
1. Chapter 1

"How the world has changed…couldn't even tell we were ever at war," a young man mused loudly as he watched the citizens of Shin Tokyo stream on with their lives. Students, businessmen and women, shopkeepers, scientists, people from every walk of life passed him by. It was unfamiliar to him, to see so many ordinary people and none of the soldiers and black suits he had spent the last five years around.

"Stow that talk boy! We don't need a reminder of that hell!" a man, a foreigner though hardly out of place in Shin Tokyo, at the next table over growled loudly. The attention of the entire café was suddenly drawn to them.

The young man raised an eyebrow at the middle aged foreigner, possibly one of the many contractors brought to the city by the lure of plentiful jobs, who had growled at him. "My apologies, I didn't think it was proper to comment on someone's personal thoughts," the young man quickly responded as he stood and grabbed his black jacket. Tossing enough yen on the table to pay for his coffee, he made left the small café. It wasn't a battle worth fighting. These people would rather forget the war, forget the sacrifices, forget the death of Tokyo-2, forget the pain, forget the misery and he couldn't blame them. If he a chance he would like to forget it, but wishes were wishes and reality was reality.

"Thank for visiting. Please come again," one of the waitresses called out as he passed.

He gave the black haired woman a once over and a thin smile. She was rather pretty in a classical way and rather clam compared to her short tempered sister who also worked at this particular café. "I'll be back in two weeks, I have some business to attend to out of town," he informed the woman. He had come to like this café more than others and along with his patronage he was something of a friend with most of the staff at Ayame Café.

"Then we will see you then. I'll tell the rest later on, have a good trip, Mr. Ikari."

Hibiki was all business as they spoke. She had to maintain the image of the perfect waitress for the new customers. Only the regulars like him got to see the real side of the staff and owner. Once the sun went down and the weather was right the Café revealed its alternate function. He stepped onto the sidewalk as a certain car pulled up. His ride was here at last.

The window rolled down and a hand gestured for him to get in. Wasting no time, as it wouldn't do to annoy his immediate superior this early it the game, he stepped into the grey SUV. "Takami," he greeted the grey haired woman as he sat

"Shinji," she replied tensely. "There has been an unexpected development. Drive,' she commanded the driver, a nondescript man of middle age.

"Does it have to do with everyone's favorite idiot?" he asked. If something had gone wrong then it was most likely Minaka Hiroto's fault in some way shape or form. It was either him or SEELE, but the old men were dead and gone.

"Yes, he's decided to start the game early. I've only had time to tune half of the specimens and that moron wants to start the game already!" Takami grabbed her lab coat in anger, no doubt imagining it was Minaka's face. "We'll have to move our plans forward in response. This is bad," she stated as she pulled a cigarette from her pocket and lit it.

"He is forcing us to move in response to him. Bastard," Shinji mused idly. This whole plan of theirs was controlled by the whims of certified mad genius, plans that kept him and many others safe from those who end those he cared for. "NERV and MBI…a dangerous combination from the outsiders view. Neither can be trusted, yet once more the world must reply on us to defend it."

"The shield of the world; that was the motto your group took after the war. You should have expected this to happen. GERHIN's secrets cannot be buried forever," Takami stated. "It's time for you to do _that_."

He knew what she was referring to and hated it. It was an act of betrayal towards the woman who held his heart. She would learn of it, NERV knew it would happen and knew the NERV rumor mill well. Even in Europe she would learn of his betrayal at the command of the Supreme Commander of the NERV. She had given her blessings in his mission before she left, but he knew it would hurt more than she admitted. The hurt and unshed tears on her face as he walked her to her plane told him that much.

"I don't like it, Takami. It's betrayal of the highest order. Why does it have to be on such a deep level," he quietly cursed what ever fate had led him to this place. It was a pointless wish though; he could have walked away from NERV and this madness before it started, but he had chosen to stay. He hated NERV, yet it was home after a fashion. He belonged…that feeling was rare enough to make him stay.

"Look, I know you're torn over this. Love and genetically based love, hell that's nearly artificial love, but I'm not going to mince words here. It needs to be done. The Disciplinary Squad is one power that might ruin our plans by its lonesome. You are the counterbalance to Minaka's hit squad. It would take too long to bring any of the others anyway, so we're left with you whether you like it or not. Deal with it," Takami finished with a glare.

He returned the grey eyed woman's glare with a level look. She was not the scariest thing he had ever had to face. The horrors of the stars were far worse than anything a mere human could conjure. The car stopped and she broke eye contact.

"It's time to get you in this game. They are waiting for you.' She flicked her cigarette to the ground and ground it with her heel. "I'll admit I'm surprised two of them reacted to you like they did."

"Believe me; I've never had two women throw themselves at me like those two did. That was the first time we had ever met too. I thought the reaction process was supposed to take longer than one sighting."

"So did I," she answered they walked into MBI headquarters. "All the data pointed to a slow reaction similar to what we saw with the first one, but it the reaction time must have been subjected to some form of drift even though we kept them isolated."

They boarded a special elevator, hidden behind a false pillar, which had a single destination. The S-Isolation wards didn't exist in any official building plan. Minaka had created them for the sole reason of housing the specimens and the construction crew that had dealt with those rooms was now living a comfortable life outside of Shin Tokyo under the watchful eye of NERV and MBI security. Every word they spoke was monitored and the moment they spoke of the secret MBI rooms built off the record snipers would terminate them no matter the location, time or witnesses. Where money didn't work, they would use lethal force to protect the Plan.

"I recall Dr. Akagi ran into a similar issue with Project E-2 two years ago. The only explanation was drift due to evolutionary factors, but that was an Angel. After all each of them was different so high speed evolution to combat natural predators would be expected. Though if we applied that to Project S…I wonder what would drive the specimens to such ends. Mating cycles? Subtle environmental changes?" Shinji threw ideas out as they ascended the tower.

"Maybe," Takami said thoughtfully. "Ritsuko used an active crystalline inhibitor in the new LCL didn't she?"

"I think so, but from what I've heard it failed after the first few successful startups," he answered with a shrug. "I really don't know."

"A temporary fix…" Takami trialed off. "It wasn't like this before those old men raped the world. Things made sense back then, up was up, down was down and aliens were aliens!" She let out a frustrated sigh. "Damn them! Before Impact my specimens didn't show nearly as much drifting. It wasn't just the specimens, but the rest of my old department was complaining about unforeseen drift just last week in other experiments. Second Impact did more than we thought and you were just the start."

"Imagine what a Third Impact would do," he joked grimly.

The white haired scientist snorted. "We'd be screwed, but…" she drawled, "Minaka would probably be dead in a gutter or soon to be dead by my hands."

There was a ding as the elevator reached the top floor. The pair stepped out and looked out over the balcony. In that white room a hundred alien beings had once lived, trained, fought, ate, socialized, argued and were made ready for the game of a madman. In the hidden rooms of MBI headquarters they waited to take Shin Tokyo by storm in the unavoidable game to come. Now less than half remained, many moved to offsite locations to wait for the signal to move or in the case of the truly powerful ones, allowed to roam as they pleased.

"The socialization programs Dr. Akagi suggests have been working wonderfully, though it was one hell of a time getting that bastard to accept the change," Takami informed him.

Shinji hummed in acknowledgement. Dealing with the CEO of MBI was…very difficult and sometimes dangerous task. Takami was one of the few who could defy Minaka without consequence. Shinji quickly amended that thought; Minaka was obsessed with Takami for that reason.

Looking down he could pick out a number of Sekirei by name. He knew of a few that Minaka had released for his own purposes, namely Hibiki, Hikari, and numbers one through ten though a few had broken out on their own. The upper numbers were long gone and a few other key ones to the Plan were ready to be winged. By the end of the week up to fifty of the aliens would be set lose in Shin Tokyo to winged and herald the start of the game. It would have been controlled chaos according to the NERV agenda. In small doses they could control the Sekeri and, by extent, Minaka until a permanent solution could be formed as to what fate MBI's CEO would face. Death was too good for the CEO and if life or death was all that mattered then Shinji was sure he could end the CEO's life without much trouble, but the greater picture held him back. MBI and Minaka were needed for the war that they fought.

To fight the alien, traitor and heretic NERV was ready to do great violence, ally with the evilest men to safeguard humanity. Angel, human, Evangelion, Sekeri…all stood to face utter ruin if nothing was done. Across the globe NERV and MBI hunted in the shadows, across hundreds of labs scientists and researcher sought to understand their enemies and form countermeasures against creatures born out of nightmares. The Angel War was over, but the war for survival had yet to be fought. The Angels had been the opening shot of the war all of humanity would soon be consumed by.

"It's time. The window will be getting smaller now," Takami stated as she hit a button on a small console attached to the railing. The balcony platform began to descend when Shinji heard the elevator ding. Looking up he heard a familiar cry that he wished he wasn't so familiar with.

"WAIT FOR ME TAKAMI!"

"Oh hell no!' Takami punched the console controls over and over. "Why can't this piece of junk go any faster!"

Shinji saw the flash of a white coat falling towards them and wisely stepped aside. A second latter Minaka hit the platform and rolled. He sprang to his feet and straightened his coat as he spoke, seemingly unharmed by his fall. "My dearest Takami, how could leave without your dear husband?"

"First off, we're NOT married," Takami snapped. "Second, you are a lunatic and nothing more. Third, you are not needed for this operation."

"On the contrary, I'm the head of MBI and the Project-S falls under my control as CEO of MBI. By attending this experiment I am fulfilling my duties in the oversight clause of my CEO contract," Minaka explained rationally.

Shinji noted that the madman made no move to dismiss the lunacy charge. The worst part was Minaka was correct; the CEO contract, created by Minaka himself, gave him nearly unlimited power over almost everything in Shin Tokyo though few people knew it. Takami was looking away, angrily gripping the railing. "We should proceed with the next phase of the plan chairman," he nodded towards Minaka, "director," he acknowledged Tamki's formal title as the woman let go of the poor railing and slowly let her anger out.

"You are correct. The age of the gods cannot wait any longer! Today we take the first steps towards the dawn of a new age of the gods!" The platform came to a stop with a small shudder. Minaka stepped away of the other two and strutted down the small ramp, still speaking in flowery prose. "The call of destiny lies heavy on this day. Here we shall change the course of the world! Today history will be made that will echo down through the ages as the day man created new gods! No longer will we be blinded by the lies of men, cursed by weak willed men, hidden from the eyes of the alien. For this is the new age of the gods ! The eternals! The guardians! The shield! The sword! The wisdom! The power! The wrath! The fury! The-"

"ENOUGH! SHUT UP!" Takami suddenly screamed.

Shinji gave the enraged woman an inquisitive look. Was it not better to let Minaka get all his prose out now rather then later? It had become rather annoying though, Minaka's delusions were grating. It was pity she wasn't even looked at him as she steamed.

"But I wasn't finished," Minaka whined pitifully.

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" Takami continued to scream. "KEEP YOUR DAMNED DELUSIONS TO YOURSELF!" She stomped away, further into the crowd of alien beings.

He wanted to make a sarcastic quip, but he had no desire to get on Minaka's bad side so soon. Though the chairman couldn't kill him, he could be cut out of the loop and denied information through a bilateral investigation into his personal conduct.

"I'm just getting to the good part too! Come on Takami," Minaka begged his lead scientist as he ran after Takami.

"NO! SHUT UP AND DON'T TALK! EVER!" Takami's fist collided with Minaka's head, sending the CEO flying.

"Oh, I love it when you get so hot and bothered!" Minaka giggled perversely. "It makes the sex all that much better!"

"GO TO HELL!" Takami roared, rushing the man with her clip board rose to greet the CEO's head.

Shinji moved quicker than her arm and put on a last burst of speed, passing the CEO. He caught the arm as it descend, sparing the unfortunate CEO. "ENOUGH!" he growled. "We have business to attend to and this," he indicated the crowd of curious Sekeri that had gathered around them as if they were some kind of spectacle, "is not our business, Takami."

Angry grey eyes bored into his then that anger slowly faded. He felt her arm slacken and let down. The limb fell to the scientist's side slowly. "Alright, you win Ikari. He," she jabbed a finger in Minaka's direction, "doesn't suffer right now. Later though …" she purposely trialed off.

"I can't wait for tonight! Make-up sex here I come!" Minaka declared, jumping to his feet.

Shinji sighed when her heard the tell tale crack of Minaka's skull being introduced to Takami's fist. Sometimes it was better not to get in the way of married couples; Misato had taught him that lesson with her own relationship. He began to walk away from the couple. Sekeri let him pass without a word. They knew him or rather than knew his power, his unnatural and dangerous presence, that was so much like their own yet utterly alien to them.

"A race of demi-humans defending humans. How ironic," he murmured to himself then snickered at irony. He wasn't human, perhaps he was once human, perhaps he never was he had no idea. Several of the more bold Sekirei greeted him with nods and short hellos that elicited a small, polite wave or nod of his own; the product of his uncle and aunt strict rules during his youth. He pulled a keycard from his pocket as he reached the wall and placed it against a small scanner. There was a click and the outline of a door formed in the wall. The door automatically slid open and he stepped inside. Takami and Minaka hastened after him, sliding in just as the door started to close.

The door shut, leaving them in complete darkness. For many minutes there was darkness. He heard the clicks and grinding of cogs, the only signs he was still in a physical place. Slowly light began to creep in. In the pit of his stomach he felt fear grow for the first time in several years. He was going to commit his betrayal in this place. Here a relationship born out of desperation and impulsive desire, but eventually turned to love, would be torn, but he hoped not broken.

He uttered a brief prayer to any deity that might be listening that things would not go too far. The light source came into view with a final click of the cogs. Before him stood a thin screen were a lamp sat on a small desk behind the screen. He could make out the shape of two couches and two nude female figures rose to their feet. He could make out every curve in their bodies and sighed. At least Minaka was mercifully silent. "As per the agreement you will leave," he reminded Minaka.

"Of course! I am a man of my word after all. Now go and bring the new age of the gods to men!" Minaka cried indignantly.

Shinji heard a crack and walked towards the screen. "Keep that voyeur in line Takami."

"Got it, just finish this. One injection should be enough to create the connection," the scientist reminded him one last time. "Oh yeah! Before I forget, have a bit of fun first. Makes it easier," she suggested crassly.

Shinji was glad the scientist couldn't see his face. Her advice was unneeded. Before he had had left Tokyo-3 he had spent several days with his girlfriend, most of them filled with every perverted act they could think of. She had been insatiable or perhaps it had been desperation. That was always a very real possibility of no return or worse in their line of work. He placed a hand on the screen and pulled it back, trying not to look. He kept his thoughts centered on her, he vowed it would be her face he would see when he did the deed.

"Ashikabi," two melodious voices greeted him as he stepped in and pulled the screen back to it original position.

"Let's get this over with," he murmured as two soft sets of hands embraced him.

* * *

><p>Dawn broke over Shin Tokyo as he sipped his tea. Most of the warmth was gone, but the mere action put him at ease. Cold spices sent a familiar tingle down his spine. Golden sun illuminated the city, chasing away the night shadows. Slowly the city was coming to life, but he didn't see it anymore. Shin Tokyo to the rest of the world was a shining example of the future, of what other cities could be become, a beacon of hope. In his eyes he saw none of that hope for a better day. It was a city built in lies and slavery, MBI and NERV were both equally responsible for the slaves. The life blood of the city was not the clean hydroelectric plants, but the espionage and murders carried out in the night. In bars and in brothels off of hidden alleyways agents played games, men and women died by the dozens and never a word about it was spoken. A city of blood, a city of rot, a city of lies, a city with no hope of a better day…if this was the better day then he should have let the Angels win.<p>

Slowly the sounds of two females arguing took his attention away from the sound of cars and trains passing far below. Waiting for the phone call was hard enough, but waiting for him with two freshly winged Sekirei was far worse. What had once become a long quiet wait was now a noisy one. He glanced over his shoulder and shook his head as the Sekirei argued each filled with nervous energy. "Enough you two," he gently reprimanded them.

"But Taki wouldn't give me the last cookie!" the redhead whined as she tried to reach the cookie held just outside of her reach.

"Really! All I said we would should offer it our Ashikabi," the grey haired Taki replied, sliding behind a sofa.

"The playground is not a playground Saki," he chided them as Saki dove over the armrest of the sofa in an attempt to get the cookie in Taki's hands. "Come here and bring the tea pot with some cups for yourselves." Standing he grabbed his teacup and walked over to the smaller of his two sofas, letting himself fall into the plush material.

"Got it! Get the tea and cups Taki."

"No," Taki replied with an easy smile as she swiftly made her way to him. She slid up to up, tucking his arm against her side.

Saki let out an angry growl. "Don't hog him!" she cried when saw Taki's position. "Making a girl work like this…"

Shinji sighed as his Sekirei's actions. Saki had much to learn about the real world. She was literally the product of a specimen brought up on only TV and limited contact with the real world. Her delusions of girly fantasy ideas were the stuff of fairytales and nothing more. At his side Taki hummed contently and he had to admit the warmth was welcomed. They were affectionate creatures, Sekirei, and they only wanted one thing and it just so happened to be love; the one thing he the most trouble giving.

"You weren't looking at us last night were you?" Taki asked suddenly. She used her free hand to break the cookie in half and started to offer it to him.

Gently he pushed her hand away, Hand feeding was a step he wasn't ready to take, but the dejected face she made after that almost broke him then and was no reason to lie, not to these two aliens who had sworn to love him forever and ever yet that alone would be reason enough to lie. "No, as much as I tried I couldn't do it. The face I see is yours," he traced Taki's jaw line with his free hand.

"What about me?" Saki demand, hand on hip. She had already placed the tea tray on the coffee table and snatched half of the cookie from Taki's hand. "Or do you only see her face?" she demanded pointing to Taki as she munched on the cookie.

He could have missed the victorious smirk that Taki shot, but didn't. The dejected face was gone for the moment at least. "Damn me for a fool for saying this, but I see each of you and no one else." The youthful gray haired Sekirei pressed deeper against him, making a pleased sound. He was acutely aware of her breasts on his arm and her soft breath over his bare skin.

"Pig!" Saki cried at Taki as she jumped in his lap, shoving her ample breasts into his face. "We know anyway. It's alright if you want to imagine her face on of these nights. After all, its love right?"

Taki hummed her agreement as she tilted her head and kissed his neck. He could have done something inmate with them. He could have gone for Saki's ticklish spot just below the waistband of her white skirt. He could have met Taki lips. He could have taken them here and now, on the penthouse couch as the sun rose. He did nothing, he would not and could not. As much as his body ached for their touch and the feelings of sex, it would only drive the nails in his relationship deeper. The first bout of sex had been for a reason, beyond that it was learning his partners abilities and skills. The third time would be for pleasure alone, selfish reasons that would drive those nails in deeper. It was a stroke of luck when his phone started to vibrate in his pocket. "That's mine," he said, gently pushing Saki off his let go of his arm slowly, watching his every move. He pulled the simple phone, a plain thing colored silver and black, and stood as he answered. "Yes?"

"There's been an incident."

Minaka. Minaka had called him personally. The madmen rarely did that. The pretty secretary Minaka had or Takami normally gave him his assignments. For the CEO to call him…the assignment was vital to MBI and NERV security. "I assume this is of a vital nature."

"Yes, a Sekirei has fallen into the hands of one of our…competitors. This cannot stand. They must be punished and the Sekirei recovered. There can be no survivors, no witnesses, but I don't think I need to tell you that."

"Who and where?" Shinji asked. He motioned his two Sekirei to quite their newest squabble and started to pace around the penthouse. He gave the tea a longing glance, the chances of enjoying another cup were dying by the second. "Which group or is it another cult?" He honestly hoped it wasn't another cult. Cultists were stupidly ignorant and every time he was sent after them they ended up quickly summoning whatever strange horror they most definitely were not trying to summon. He didn't need to see another incident like the school and those damned horny demon spawn with too many eyes.

"The Ashford Foundation."

Shinji almost swore, but held barely held back. "Are you sure? It was the Ashford Foundation?" he pleaded. Dealing with the Ashford Foundation was annoying and dangerous. Founded by a group of business men and political leaders in 1930's with a passing interest in the occult, the Foundation was a cancer that grown out of control. When seemingly ordinary things began to change in the post Impact world they emerged as the lead authority on paranormal events and occult activities in the Western Hemisphere. With bases and sympathizers in every country they were the primary opposition party to GERHIN, and later, NERV and MBI in the race against all things inhuman. The many times a NERV operation had gone sour when Ashford agents entered the area was beyond count. The problem lay that the UN had given them the same autonomous authority as NERV during then Angel War and the Foundation had all but gone rouge when the War was declared over publicly.

"The Foundation has one of my single digits, number zero-three, Kazehane," Minaka growled. "Get her back and slaughter them. Leave none of them alive. I'm sending the Disciplinary Squad with you. Kazehane is being held in a facility in the Greater Southwest Territory of the American Confederation."

There was no arguing with Minaka when he spoke like that. The CEO of MBI wanted this done and he wanted it done badly. The Foundation had stepped on his ego personally by taking one of the first Sekirei the man had personally awaken and even Shinji knew it was better not to wake a sleeping oni. If anything he felt sorry for those fools at the Foundation. "I'll make the call and assemble some strike teams to contain. Send your lackeys to the normal location with the intelligence and I'll meet them there."

"Destroy everything! They have dared to defy the coming of new age. Make them pay for it! Am I clear?"

"Crystal clear," Shinji replied tensely before he snapped the phone shut. The echo of plastic hitting plastic rang over the suddenly quiet penthouse. Saki and Taki watched him with worried eyes. He knew he would appear tense and it was appropriate in light of the newest mission given.

"What's happened?" Saki asked quietly.

He surpassed the urge to rub his head and headed for his armchair. "Could one of you get the pill bottles on the top shelf in the kitchen and a glass of water?" A headache was coming and the familiar pain in his gut was coming back. Was it close to time for the next dose already?

"I'll get it," Taki answered as she rose to her feet.

He let himself sink into the cushy armchair. Idly he noted that the white dress Taki favored enhanced her natural alien grace, accented her beauty. She was a rather lovely creature and, for the number of non-human beings he encountered, one of the most even tempered and agreeable ones. Playing with the phone he stalled for time, not wishing to answer Saki's question quite yet. Slowly he opened the phone, dismissed the call ended screen and punched in a number he was none too happy to know by heart. Switching the phone over to speaker, he tilted it so the camera was pointing at his face.

"Agent Ikari."

"Supreme Commander," Shinji acknowledged the gray screen with the red words SOUND ONLY. "I need several strike teams to Air Field S-137, four Infiltrator VOLTS, and clearance to enter the American Confederation."

"I know the situation already. The teams and VOLTS are on their way. Do what you can to placate the CEO, save his specimen and seize the Ashford data banks if the chance is given otherwise destroy them. Do not let the Ashford data to fall into MBI's hands."

"Understood." Shinji moved to end the call, but hesitated. Technically he was mated to these two aliens now and the Commander was his father. It was only human to introduce ones wife, or in his case mates, to her father in law, but he was leery to do so. Gendo Ikari would already know about it, to introduce them would lead to another sharp comment from him about wasting his valuable time on trivial matters. It was better to avoid such things, they were barely father and son as it was. As far Gendo Ikari was concerned Shinji was just another agent in the field, a tool to be used and discarded.

"You should know that a shipment is on its way to you. It will be the last shipment Dr. Akagi can send for some time. Make it last."

With those final grim words the elder Ikari ended the call. Sighing, Shinji closed the phone. Once more nothing had changed between them. Would the day come when they might experience the bonds of family again? He had a few memories of his father laughing with him at the TV program as his mother called them for dinner. Precious childhood memories were few between them and so long as they both lived there was a chance, even though hell had a better chance of freezing over first, that they could have at least one more memory as father and son.

"Shinji?" Saki called out respectfully.

"Hmm?" He gratefully took the pill bottle from the tray Taki had sent on the coffee table and popped on of the blue pills into his mouth. Following it up with a swing of water, he opened the other bottle and took the red pill. Relief flooded his gut, the aches faded and his headache vanished like the mist in the morning. "I suppose I should explain," he muttered, settling back into the chair.

"That would be nice," Taki said, picking the tray up and returning to the kitchen.

He had to give it to her, Saki had a nice body. Her voluptuous form was the dream of many women and target of many men, yet to the Sekirei it was normal for the most part. He knew of very few flat chested Sekirei, but they existed. Like humans, Sekirei came in all shapes and sizes. "Alright then, we have been assigned our first mission."

"Really? Nice!" Saki cheered, excitement in her eyes.

"Indeed, it will be a chance to prove our devotion and power," Taki added as she placed the glass in the small dishwasher.

"I wish it was. That is not the case. One of your kind has been taken prisoner by the Ashford Foundation." He ignored the gasps of disbelief from the two Sekirei and cut off their question with a raised hand. "I don't know how those bastards did it or why and anything else. We'll find out more when we link up with the Disciplinary Squad. The Foundation cannot be taken lightly though," he warned them. "They are competent non-human fighters. If they took Kazehane then they will know ways to counter your superior strength, speed, endurance, skills and powers."

"We could take them!" Saki declared boisterously"They must have taken number three by surprise. When I come for 'em, they won't know what hit 'em!"

"Did they really take Kazehane?" Taki asked quietly as she returned to the couch and sat down.

"As much as I'm inclined to agree with you Saki that will not be the plan. They expect us to act like you suggest. A different approach will be needed against the Foundation." Shinji watched the redheaded Sekirei's face fell, disappointment written all over it, but there was little he could do at the moment. "So far as my intelligence says, it was Kazehane. Why?" he asked curiously, turning to face Taki.

Surprisingly, a small blush came over Taki's pale face. "She use to visit me while Takami was finishing my adjustments. She…comforted me in the pain," she finished looking down at her feet. "I don't know why, but she just did."

"Oh? Is that so?" Taki purred with a teasing smile on her face. "So sad! You couldn't save yourself for your Ashikabi. Were you so desperate that you turned to other Sekirei to give you relief?"

The gray haired girl blushed fiercely and raised her hands in rebuttal, frantically waving in denial. "No, no, no! Nothing happened! Nothing!"

"Oh my! Anything you say," Taki said with false sincerity and a wide smile on her face.

"Nothing happened!" Taki insisted over and over. Her gaze falling further and further to the floor as her arms fell to her sides. A slight tremble ran though her frame and she stood.

He leaned back and shut his eyes for a moment. Hecould have stopped them, but he didn't. It wasn't worth it. Over the cookie it had been worth it for the sake of a peaceful sunrise, but this was sometime they would have to address on way or another if they chose to make it a real issue rather than teasing. His mind was a thousand miles away, preparing for the violence he was about to commit in the name of humanity against humanity. There was little hope for the fools at the Foundation and even less for those who had taken Kazehana. They would die horrible deaths; by sword, gun, and strange might they would be broken and maybe allowed to die.

Already he could imagine their specters rising up to join the hosts of the dead that screamed for his head every night. A thousand bodies faces screaming his name, withering in endless agony, gashing teeth seeking his flesh and new faces; faces he didn't now would join them in the never after. Perhaps one day they would rest, but it would come when he fell before the might of another like him. They had no hope, the dead, and neither did he. More would join them. By the hundreds or lonesome the dead host would grow as he killed and killed again. The curse lay heavy on his shoulders, the curse that few knew and even fewer understood that had born by an ungodly hybrid he was.

"It's no use," he muttered and opened his eyes. Standing he walked towards his bedroom and froze…technically it was his Sekirei's bedroom too. It would take time to get use to that idea. It was…odd to think in those terms again, not as an I, but as we. They had pledged their everything to him; bodies, powers, minds and even their souls. To think such a bond could exist in a world of lies…it shook him with the idea of such purity. Such a thing was nearly unheard of in the post Impact world.

"Is something wrong?" Taki asked with a hint concerned. Across the table the redhead looked at him, her head tilted with concern

"Ah…nothing, just thinking," he offered weakly. How long had he been standing there? "You two should prepare. We leave in thirty minutes." He was in no rush to meet with the Disciplinary Squad. The VOLTS and tactical teams would need at least three hours to reach Shin Tokyo and the airfield was only an hour away. "Time to go to war…again," he said with a sad nod. More pointless death and destruction over powers man insisted on messing around with when they should unify to face the greater threats.

Perhaps one day he would no longer be needed. He almost smiled at that optimistic thought. There was no end for him, not from war, death and killing. Once he stopped killing the pills would stop coming. He would die, but he hoped he would have enough time to flee to the secluded mountains. There, in some distant village that had been lost to the world, he could meet his painful end. Who knew, maybe the cherry blossom would be in bloom when the day came.

He opened the closet door and pulled his long coat out. The black leather still bore the blackened and faded stains of blood. No human or alien could tell were the spots were, but he knew each and every one. Each and every stain was a different story that bit deeply into his soul, leaving their eternal mark. "Enough Shinji," he chided himself. "It's time to work. She wouldn't want me to act this way. We have to live in the moment or suffer and we'll suffer enough when we die…"

* * *

><p>A moonlit night fell over the southwestern desert as two dozen figures made their way across the desert. Lone jeeps driven by the outermost guards of the Foundation were the first to fall. None would live to see the dawn. Swift gabs and steel daggers killed with ease. Black clad soldiers escorted the keys to the operation with fearful wariness, rightfully born from experience, across the desert floor.<p>

Shinji easily kept pace with the soldiers, keeping his hands in his pockets as he walked. Overhead an owl screeched, but they never stopped moving. At the foot of the final hill before the Foundation base they halted. He beckoned Saki with a nod. She reached his side as the soldiers began to fan out. Behind them the Disciplinary Squad strolled, keeping their own timetable he noted with distaste. They were so confident in their power and felt that nothing could harm them, let alone humans, because they were powerful Sekirei. How little they knew of the world, Shinji found himself thinking. Outside of a few times MBI kept Minaks's pet aliens within Shin Tokyo, they were largely ignorant of the world and the dangers in it. Saki tugged on his sleeve, pulling him back to reality, and puckered up. He met her lips as the wings of light erupted form her back; the wings of their contract, the norito, came to life. He felt her leech at his power, taking it and converting it into a useable energy for her alien physiology. She tried to prolong the kiss, but he pulled away quickly.

"Ah!" She pouted then perked up. "When I get back then," she vowed.

He nodded and motioned one of the soldiers to drop the burden he had borne over the last mile of their trek. The man gratefully dumped the body of a woman dressed as a guard on the ground. Saki knelt beside the cooled corpse and studied the face. With deft hands she opened the uniform and stripped the corpse down to nothing, setting the underwear aside carefully to avoid getting it dirty. "Ever changing perception, cast off the shackles that bind my Ashikabi!"

Shinji watched with interest as she unveiled her power to him. Her body changed, parts flattened, others shifted and expanded as the Saki he knew was quickly replaced in by the dead woman. The entire process had taken little more than a minute and he couldn't see a difference between Saki and the dead woman at first glance. She quickly dressed in the dead woman's clothes and hugged him tightly before she strapped on the woman's belt. Slinging the assault rifle, an unknown model Shinji assumed was exclusive to the Foundation; she sauntered up the hill with a cheery wave to him.

He settled on a rock and waited. Taki drifted to his side as the soldiers kept the watch. In the moonlight he could see her pale skin where the black shirt had been cut away. It had been a chore to get her to switch to black clothing instead of her usual white dress. Finally he had forced her into the black pants and a heavily altered shirt with no small amount of kissing when reason failed. All was fair in love and war; though it was exploiting their natural instinct to be intimate with their mates.

Across from him the Disciplinary Squad sat, one of the three watching him intently with those grey eyes as if finding something amusing about him. Karasuba, the Black Sekirei, was amongst the most dangerous foes he had ever encountered. The alien woman was the last of the original Disciplinary Squad still in service to MBI and a dangerously powerful. Her kills ranged from spies to foreign soldiers to traitors within MBI; each life taken with the same glee as her nodachi ran red with blood. She toyed with the hem of her miniskirt as the other hand ran down the edge of her nodachi. "What?" he asked her quietly.

She blinked as if surprised he had addressed her directly for the first time since they boarded the VOLTs. "What?" she echoed with a smirk.

He didn't give her an answer. Taki tugged slightly on his jacket, her message to leave the Black Sekirei alone clear. He had no illusion that Karasuba wouldn't hesitate to cut down both of his Sekirei and himself for little to no reason. Neither of them was a physical type of combatant, weapon user or and Saki's element wouldn't hold her long.

If anything his lack of response caused her smirk to grow. "You're an odd human."

"Wonderful," he replied with false sincerity.

"Does death bother you?" she asked suddenly as she slid her palm down the flat of herblade. Without waiting for an answer she started talking, keeping her voice low. "Most humans fear death in the end. In the last moment as my blade slides out of the other side of their chest the fear begins. Soldier, civilians alike it's always the same fear. No human is immune to that paralyzing fear of death the moments before death takes you humans. Yet you…" she trailed off as if inviting him to speak.

"I've faced things worse than death," he told her slowly. "I've been in hell since I was young, fought with gods, walked with legends, slain monsters out of the depths of time, and fought horrors born from the blackest nights. Death has touched me, but never taken me. I won't allow it until my task is done and every sin is paid for."

She gave him an odd look, titling her head as if confused by his answer. "You seek forgiveness? That is why you kill and kill some more."

He gave a shrug and looked to the stars. "Maybe. As much as I hate it, I continue to do it. I could have left this life behind and been anything else, but here I am,' he recalled sadly. After the Angel War was declared over a dozen nations had offered him citizenship along with numerous monetary rewards. Hundreds of companies approached him to be their spokesmen and every single on he had turned down. He had chosen to stay with NERV, to fight and kill with those he was familiar with rather than face total strangers. In the darkness he was willing to admit the grim truth to himself; he was addicted to the thrill of battle. Only in the darkness and comfort of his own bed would he admit such things to himself. "I don't know any other way to live," he murmured to the stars, but Karasuba caught them.

"A human who is willing to admit he likes to kill, imagine that," she said with a wry grin. "You have no idea who rare that trait is in you humans. But…" she paused for a moment, "you were born, trained and enhanced to kill like no one else. The product of madness and genius born for the sole reason to be the sword of humanity, I think the reports put it. Sickening theatrics if you ask me."

"You sounded like Minaka there," he replied sardonically. He kept face schooled in a mask of normalcy. Allowing the Black Sekerir to throw him off balance here was a danger to the mission, though she had a point, he had been made in a weapon.

"Hmm, I guess I did. Damn! He's rubbing off, his melodrama must be contagious."

There was snicker here and there from the other Sekirei and more than one soldier near them. Shinji found her little joke rather amusing and gave her thin smile. "That would explain Takami's reason to contain him as much as possible. Otherwise we'd have a pandemic on our hands."

She nodded with that wry grin still plastered over her face. "A cancer, known as the madness of Minaka Hiroto, slowly eating away at the world. Damn, that Minaka would love that! Hey, you're pretty good at the insult thing."

It was Shinji's turn to blink in surprise. Did she just…compliment him? Was such a thing even possible from one of the oldest Sekirei? "Did you just…"

"It was a compliment," she said languidly. "You do know I'm more than my MBI profile says," she told him seriously. "Beneath out powers and superior bodies we're only a step above you humans, though it's a massive step that humans will never cross," she offhandedly said.

"With a similar tastes in black humor and inflated ego apparently." It was getting close to time for them to move. Soon the guards on the gate would be dead and the assault would begin. The flare would come, regretfully bringing the killing along with it.

"Is this the part where you show us some of your high and mighty 'magic'?" Karasuba asked with some degree of interest.

Her interest in human magic was little more than a higher being watching a lower one perform some trick, revolutionary to the lower being, but nothing to the higher one and Shinji knew it. "It's not magic," he replied with a hint of anger. "This is no stage trick with rabbits or cards. This is the Artificial Terror, Absolute Territory. This is not magic. This is potential!" As he finished talking he commanded the implant by touching an area just below his laryngeal prominence.

Fire coursed in his veins as coils wrapped around his muscles came to life. The humming of a thousand bees filled his body as he shut his eyes and began to focus. Implanted circuits kicked into high gear, sending bottles of pain and pleasure through his body. His body screamed for him to stop, screamed as the nature of his being changed. The human he was changed for an instant and metamorphosis was painful. He was driven to his knees, but batted away a hand that came to his shoulder.

Slowly he forced himself to stand as the world faded away. Sounds were replaced by the endless beating of his heart, the pounding of drums filling him with a pure and primal sound. Even the sound of breathing passed away as he began his work. Had he been in an Evangelion he might have just commanded it to have and crafted it to some degree, but not here. Now he was both the pilot and the Eva. This was the reason most pilots died from the implanted enhancements. They lost themselves and self-destructed without the Eva there to take the brunt of the pain. It explained why the Eva was the beast that is was. It had been driven mad by the pain so the pilot would be spared. Yet another secret NERV kept locked up tight.

He extended, there were no words to describe how he moved in this state, his reach into the ionosphere. Time held no meaning in this state and he waited. Colors appeared for a moment and he waited for the dim red of an ELVES. Expanding his sight he found it- maybe it was near to maybe it was far because space no longer matter. He simply was. He captured the dim red light and contained it. The orange hexagons he was so familiar with flared to life as the ELVES resisted his command.

He gathered other ELVES close, was that even a proper term, to the first after trapping them. Smashing them together he crafted a massive orb, glowing that dim red that he had once associated with Angel Cores. Slowly he forced himself back to the ground. Physical sensations began to return and he opened his eyes. The world of the Angels was gone, yet he still stood in it. Some called it the transcendent space; a space between human and Angel. Here and here alone could he use the AT field from the Angels within the human space.

Overhead the dim orb pulsed as the hexagons flared. He opened his clenched fist and set the orb in place, over the facility he intended to bombard. He felt the nitrogen feed off the collisions of their electrons as electromagnetic pluses fired off and ended, lived and died. The endless symphony of destruction echoed what he felt as his body rippled in pain. His physical form was weakening; the sack of flesh called a body would soon expire under the stress of the Angel State, as Dr. Akagi had coined it.

He let the ELVES go high over the Foundation base and slowly began to shut down the implants. Pain was the first thing to return. He fell to the desert floor, doubled over in pain and panting for breath. Then came sight. Even as he shut in eyes in pain, he saw the bright light as the electromagnetic pulse went off, directly over the facility. Then came hearing; the sound of explosions from overloaded electronics and profanity greeted him.

"Holy shit," more than one soldier cried in awe, as the special harden electronics they had given suddenly made sense.

Slowly he opened his eyes. The pain was starting to fade, but he knew his skin would be hot. He felt as though he had a slight fever, but pushed it away. It would fade shortly. The implants weren't perfect and a heat dispersal system was too bulky to place inside him at the current stage. That would come later, once Dr. Akagi and her team had a working system in hand. The first real sight he saw was a dumbfounded look on the Disciplinary Squad's faces. Without aid, he stood, even though it hurt to move. "This is the potential of mankind. This is where they could go, where they might go, where they will go. Raw potential and this is the power of that potential!"

He saw Karasuba mouthing something and then laughter came from her. High and piercing laughter as the facility suffered total electronic failure, as gunfire erupted where NERV and the Foundation clashed. "This is it!" she cried, looking to him with a dangerous gleam in her eye. "This might, this power! Godly! I haven't felt like this in years, nothing excited me this much since Yume and I first fought! The raw power!" Karasuba's face was flushed as she went on. She took long, slow strides towards him. "And to think it would come from a human, a human!" She laughed and laughed as the gunfire grew in intensity. "I've never met a human who might actually have the strength to make a world burn until now." She licked her lisp sensuously as she stalked towards him with that dangerous look in her eyes. "Such power! The might! To think something like this even existed. Beyond Sekirei, beyond human! I want it! I want to taste it, fight it, revel in it, cut it, be cut, kill it, be annihilated by its godly might!"

Shinji slowly started backing away, but the Black Sekirei came towards him regardless. In a few steps she was in his face and he gulped as wide eyed gray eyes peered into his. The devil may care smile and burst of mad laughter did nothing to set him at ease. He looked to around for aid, but found none. His other Sekirei was gone, Taki was following the mission plan as they had planned, but for a moment he hoped she would abandon the plan and come to him. Anything between him and this, clearly battle crazed, alien would be welcomed now.

"I want it, I want it, I want to taste the power!" Karasuba whispered; her hot breath on his face. "So powerful…" Her hand trialed down his cheek, tracing a line with a finger as she pushed him to the desert floor, pinning him down. "The power…the thrill…give it to me," she whispered breathily, slowly lowering her mouth to his neck.

Shinji found himself frozen in place as the mouth of the Black Sekirei drifted closer to his jugular vein. He fancied she could hear his heart pounding as the unpredictable alien left a trail of saliva across his neck. Karasuba's breath gave in short bursts, as if she were hyperventilating. For a moment he could have sworn he felt unnatural heat from her as she slowly kissed the skin where the vein ran.

He thought he heard her mummer something about another time, but wasn't sure. Her weight on his chest suddenly vanished and she was away from him in a moment. Blinking in surprise he pulled himself upright. Karasuba had reclaimed her sword and gave the edge on last glance.

"It's time to work. We can have our fun later," she told him with a saucy grin. She strode away, up and over the hill. The other two aliens followed a bit behind their leader. The one with the claws made some remark and Karasuba looked back, giving him a brief wave. Imprinted politeness made him acknowledge the wave with one of his own. She looked pleased at his response and continued up the hill, sword resting on her shoulder.

"What just happened?" he asked himself, as he stood and dusted his coat off. Only bursts of gunfire answered.

* * *

><p><em>AN: This was something of a summer project. Most of the inspiration for this story is comes from In Flight, Demonbane, and Lovecraft. Whereas the manga Sekirei has a shiny Shin Tokyo wanted to hint at the darker side and the divergences from NGE are glaringly obvious. The histories of these two worlds are obviously different than cannon, but I tried to keep the characters close to what they were originally. Shinji is an older version of his 14 year old self with some hints of past issues and a host of new ones. NERV teeters on the borderline between ethical good and ethical evil, but is more than willing to walk the line with questionable test and experiments. _

_This work was also inspired in part by HP Lovecraft and his successors work on cosmic horrors beyond the understanding of man. This allowed me to shape NERV from anti-Angel to an anti-nonhuman organization, make MBI an ally to explain why they be allowed to keep the Sekirei, a potentially dangerous nonhuman race. The Foundation was created as the foil to NERV in an anti-nonhuman game and inspired somewhat by the SCP Foundation as well as other sources from various fanworks and official series works. _

_Originally I wanted to include a magic system akin to what was seen in the Type-Moon stories blended with some elements of Demonbane magic, but ultimately I abandoned that route. I decided to go a magic-less route that was dangerous to the user with the AT field. In the post Angel war the reason behind the raging beast like mind of the Eva was uncovered as mental degeneration brought on by the use of the AT field. Ritsuko uncovered a way for humans to use the AT field outside of the buffer of an Eva and this technology was later used on the pilots to become weapons against all things nonhuman; a monster to fight monster motif. _

_Expanding this into a full story is not a task I plan to take on anytime soon though I would like to. I'd like to get back to this universe, but most of the details need to be hashed out before that and Chaos Stars: Madness Rising is taking up more of my writing time. If another author wants to take this idea and run with it then PM me first. _

_Read and reveiw! Till we meet again, ta!  
><em>


	2. Chapter 2

_For best viewing put the story width at 3/4 or 1/2 size._

* * *

><p>The gates were broken, metal twisted and severed by alien hands. Blood stained the ground where four cooling corpses rested. Only one looked upwards, a youthful face frozen in fear of the alien onslaught, but he saw nothing. The face, the body, was nothing; it was another body, one of the faceless dead he had seen a thousand. Death had taken another and the body had been left by the Rider in Black, trampled by his steed, the bullets of man.<p>

Shinji quickly ran for the main entrance, a large squat building that would descend into the earth. Two of the soldiers kept watch just outside the door, holding their only line of retreat from the main part of the base. At the far end of the complex he saw floodlights flicker momentary as the Foundation men in the towers tried to save their electronics and heard bursts of gunfire as Ashford men resisted the NERV soldiers.

One of the soldiers guarding the door raised an arm to stop him for a moment. "Agent, the Disciplinary Squad rushed ahead. They're already in the base! They'll ruin the data-"

"There is no problem," Shinji assured the man. "You're new to this aren't you?" he asked rhetorically. The man nodded, but Shinji didn't care. "Our two organizations may be allied, but that doesn't mean we share everything." He pushed the man's arm away and stepped through the severed door. Karasuba was reckless, but powerful. The foolish alien didn't know what she was toying with, the secrets of the Foundation were as dangerous as the secrets of NERV and both sides knew that, but MBI was the newcomer to their game. They understood les s and claimed to more than NERV or the Foundation. Losing the Disciplinary Squad now had its appeal, but it was what lay inside this base that he didn't want to feed and that might just be enough to sever the MBI-NERV ties, something that would result in MBI doing something very, very stupid.

The room he stepped into gave all appearances of being a reception area. A large oval desk dominated the center, though it was riddled with bullet holes and splintered. Papers lay scattered across the marble floor, stained by pools of blood or cooling bodies. The overstuffed chairs were overturned, bleached in red and gore by the Foundation members laying on them. The rear wall was dedicated to elevators and a staircase behind some light colored wood doors. The members of the assault team kept watch over the elevators as they affixed their rifles with shorter stocks and checked their ammo.

"Agent," the commander of the assault team addressed him, extending his hand to offer Shinji an earpiece. "We've secured elevators and await your order."

Shinji couldn't see the face of the commander behind the matte black helmet. He imagined that behind the faintly glowing red eyes where the eyes of a man who had seen too much of the evil human inflicted on each other, but had resigned himself to fight even so. Perhaps he had scars from past battles with the enemies of man, or peppered hair that caused by some otherworldly cause.

Shinji took the earpiece ad slipped the small band into his ear. Clicking his teeth three times he heard the earpiece hiss slightly. "Testing alpha, gamma, sigma," he whispered.

"Charlie, tango, bravo. Clear," the communications officer responded confirming the earpiece was calibrated correctly. The man gave him the thumbs up from the furthest elevator as he slid a small backpack carrying the squad relay beacon on his back.

"Our allies have already entered the main base." Shinji motioned the commander to accompany him. He started for the door to the stairs. "Our mission is simple; recover the target and leave nothing intact, expect the target and the secondary targets. Sigma Team will take the secondary target. Bravo and Tango Teams will secure the main objective. Keep your eyes open for anything out of the ordinary, switch to psi roads if you feel even the slightest sign of an XDM. Take no T-class alive unless they are on the List. Rendezvous at the pre-arranged time with the targets and god speed to you all."

Alpha team gathered around him, the commander plus the rest made eight in total. Elevator doors screeched open and he heard the sound of bolts being inserted into the steel frames. The other teams would repel down to their targets and his would have to walk. The commander offered him a pistol, but he refused with a shake of his hand. "You have more need of the bullets than I commander," he answered evenly. "Leave the XDM's to me. Let the monster kill the monsters, you must terminate the man as only men can."

He entered the halfway state, his body blazing in pain, but he stood though he was vaguely aware of trembling. Somewhere between human and Angel, he commanded his own body as if it were a puppet. Let's move," he commanded. He spoke and the words lived before his eyes, colors and shapes that existed only in this halfway state. "

The team moved with efficiency and precision born out of long years of training, not a step wasn't timed to the men around them. He was the odd one; every stepped echoed in halfway world, the soldiers echoed in steady, unified rhythm, his echoed in disruption of their perfect sound. He didn't need to look at his body to see the glazed over look he would be wearing or the faint orange tint that came using the Angel State within days of each other. In theory he could become like the Angels if he used the Angel State enough, but no one had ever fallen that far. The pools of pilot candidates had only decreased and the number of XDM incidents had only increased. Perhaps a full Angel-human was what they needed to turn the tide…she had been powerful until the end

Shinji heard new sounds, new echoes, as he moved his body down the steps. He sought out new echoes origins and had his answer in a moment. Two levels below where his body was where the Foundation gathered to plan their counter attack. The fourth level. The target of his team, the auxiliary command station, was vital to the mission. The thought that his EMP attack might have released the containments fields of XDMs sent shivers down his spine. Bits of black appeared on the edges of his sight and he tried to put the thought of having released XDMs away. The slightest emotion would manifest in this world and fear, shame and other similar emotions were the worst, expect for pain. He knew that all too well. All of those who made it as far as he did knew it.

"Enemy contacts in primary target," he whispered as the first team member reached the landing doorway where the Foundation waited.

"Go in or not?" the commander radioed back.

Shinji focused, trying to separate himself from the area immediately around his body. Careful not to let his body touch the walls he moved as close to the door as he dared. "Hold my shoulders," he commanded on the soldiers. When the woman had a grip on his shoulders he untethered himself from his body. He saw his body sway, but the woman's grip held him, it he correct himself, upright. He wanted to scream in pain as he felt the natural process of life scream out for him give in and die. Such was the rule of the world; any being who untethered itself from the physical body was hated by the world and sent beyond. Where those who died went was still a mystery even to NERV, but it might be anywhere.

The wall was a mere shadow of itself. The physical world was slowly becoming shadows as the earth rejected his presence, but he pushed back. He fought onwards, even as flares of pain flashed through his body. He felt some of the pain from the body he had left and knew that was the source of his discomfort. His own body, a creation of the physical world demanded he leave, though his current situation only happened the second third time he entered the Angel State.

The shadowy hallway lay stretched out before him, rooms and doors flickered behind them as they faded. He saw through the physical world and it was enough. He moved onwards. Shadowy images of the physical world danced like black wisps of flames in the wind and behind the ethereal flames he saw many shapes gathered. The shapes of men rose up in one room and something else, something bright.

"No…" he gasped as the bright shape emerged from the black flames. He knew what he saw. No ordinary human or physical beast would give off such a light. He knew that he did, but he knew where the other two were and it wasn't in this base. "A hybrid…shit!" He fled. He fled back to his body, casting a short glance over his shoulder to see the bright shape watching him though coal black eyes.

Unceremoniously he forced himself back into his body, even though his felt his muscles burn and body scream in agony from such a sudden descent. Asuka had once theorized, half joking, that was why infants cry as they leave the mother's womb, they were suddenly forced from a powerful, expansive existence into a limited, weak existence. When Asuka had prospered that theory to Dr. Akagi she had cackled madly and promptly left, no doubt headed for the laboratories below NERV to create something like Rei. Sometimes he was left wondering about NERV employee practices and the lack of psychological evaluation

"Eighteen men…" he gasped out as tried to steady himself. The world swam before him as he swayed for a moment, barely maintaining his balance. "Bad…they have…an XDM-H!"

"Fuck! Switch to psi rounds," the commander snapped with a ting of worry in his voice, though it might have Shinji's imagination.

"No!" he quickly countermanded. "Leave the hybrid to me. It knows I'm here, but not what I am." He stood on his own, thanking the woman who had held the body upright with a gracious nod. "My guess is it's a newborn since doesn't have a mature form yet."

"And it doesn't know your face," one of the men said humorously. "I bet heaven has posted your ugly mug all over that wonky world of theirs."

Shinji heard the slight chuckles at the bad joke, but it did help lighten the mood. Few men would willing go into a fight against a hybrid and even fewer would do so without fear. With no Angel assaults to fight anymore those who had experienced the passive effects of the AT field and struggled through it, fell by the day. The mind warping, nightmarish AT field of the Angels had broken many and reinforced NERV. Now those men guarded humanity and hunted the XDMs, but they died and the new men, like this team, were raw when it came to the mind warping nature of the XDMs. This one was powerful, but young. It would fall quickly. "The enemy is though the sixth door on the left. You have command, Zulu one," he informed the commander.

"Load psi rounds anyway. No grenades," the commander barked as he took up position to be the first into the hallway. "Zulu five, open the path on my mark. One, two, three, mark!"

The door swung open silently. Shinji watched the team rush in and prepared to enter the Angel State. As his team reached the sixth door, he felt the hybrid move. He activated the still cooling coils and implants. A scream wrenched its way from his mouth, as his body fell to the floor. His men had the door open and exchanged gunfire, but he knew his target. He entered the control room though the black wisps and saw the hybrid.

There was no time for banter. This beast wasn't interested in words. It attacked. Talons of white flames slashed and whipped towards him, borne by unseen hands. The hybrid hadn't moved; it glowed with a fierce yellow light, tinted by green around the edges as the shadowy shapes around it spread out. He didn't need to extend his hands to block the sloppy onslaught. From the floor and in the walls he drew the metal from them, small bits from every source, and shielded himself. He felt the atoms burn as the hybrid's flames ate way at them.

It was clear to him what this hybrid was. The flames and corrosive effect was a new combination of old tricks. Like many of those who dealt with the Angel State, hybrids chose to focus a few areas of control. This one focused on heat and some type of acidic gas or something along those lines. He had never been able to master any specific aspect, expect one; the most dangerous of all that ran the risk of losing oneself into nothing, the absolute mastery of wherever he expanded his soul, the Artificial Territory.

The hybrid jumped towards him, no doubt intending to get up close and consume him. It was almost a shame this one was young; the flames and acid might have made for an interesting fight if had been mature. He bent his AT field, shaping it around him as a donut. The hybrid snarled as it raised a hand coated in flames over its head. Shinji dropped his metal shield and activated the Denial Field the hybrid movement. Within his AT Field all movement was forbidden by his wish. The hybrid was frozen in the air, still snarling yet unable to act. Even its flames were denied.

"Weak," Shinji told the hybrid as he concentrated on shaping the Denial Field. He forced the Field to surround the hybrid. The hybrid moved ever so slightly as if fought against his power. The differences between them were readily apparent. This hybrid was part physical and part of a being that lived in the Angel State all its life. It knew this place and every trick. He was the stranger, the invader, a physical being who dared to fight it in its own home. He felt the Denial Field begin to weaken as he moved away from it. He changed the nature of the field within a moment, just as the creature moved more of its body.

He expanded the new field wide, encompassing the area around them. The hybrid lunged only to find its self-jumping backwards. Shinji narrowed his AT Field into spear type shape and leapt backwards. He flew towards the disorientated hybrid, aiming the tip of the spear between the coal black eyes. The light of his soul pierced the hybrid's body and it wailed in pain. "This is the end," he told it coldly as he stepped forwards to step back, leaving the spear in the hybrid. There was no gesture needed; only a mental command, a thought, but he voiced it anyway. "Explosion."

The explosion almost blinded him before the Reversal Field took command. The hybrid wailed and wailed in agony as its body was ripped to ribbons only to be inverted into an endless cycle of explosions and tearing. Even the non-physicals could feel pain from such a trap. For this hybrid the fight had been over the moment he created the Reversal Field.

Glancing around the room he saw his men finish off the last of the Foundation and saw the twitching physical form of the hybrid. "That's odd. Normal the physical body is destroyed," he mused as he returned to his body. Before he returned to his body he contacted the commander. " Zulu one, secure the hybrid with psi-locks."

"Are you sure?" the commander responded with a bit of hesitation.

"Do it Zulu one. I cannot contain and maintain it in its prison forever. Hen Mother will be interested in it no doubt." Shinji began to slowly return to his body. He felt his grip over the Reversal Field slacken as the commander responded.

"Done. You have to see this though."

"Good, I'll be along momentarily." He slipped fully into his body slowly and sagged to against the wall. After a minute of breathing hard and calming his heart rate, he stood slowly. With one hand on the wall to keep himself upright, he started down the hallway with slow steps. At length he reached the auxiliary command room and found the place as he expected. Blood and bodies, sparking wires and discarded weapons, spent ammo and a child greeted his eyes.

"A child?" he asked in surprise, "What is a child doing here?" He saw Zulu one and two other men guarding the girl, their assault rifles trained on the child's head. He was hardly stupid despite certain claims to the contrary. He could add up what was happening here with ease; this child was the hybrid. From his view he could determine the sex of the child, but he or she appeared no older than eight. The child's shoulder length black hair and gray hospital gown concealed any hints that might tell him something.

"Agent?"

Shinji mentally cursed the Foundation once more as he approached the hybrid. "Zulu one, is this child the Foundation hybrid?" he asked tensely. Creation of a hybrid was no easy feat. The resources needed to even start such a project were vast and rarely had such beings even made it out of the artificial wombs, let alone the hybridization process. Rei was one of the best examples of a successful and, more importantly, stable hybrid, though he had heard reports for NERV agents in Europe that suggested such hybrid were becoming more and more common. Where they were coming from was yet another unknown, though they knew the key material was in excess; young children worked best to create hybrids and the endless cycle of war and death had created a host of orphans.

"Correct, we've secured the command console as well. I'm pleased to report that XDM containment shielding in the base did not fail during the initial assault. We've also recovered the secondary target," the commander pointed to two of his soldiers prying a medium length, gray colored cylinder from a console set against the wall.

"And the DRUID?" Shinji asked as he tore his gaze away from the creation of hate the Foundation had made from a child. On the far side of the room, beyond the console were the soldiers pulled the Foundation databanks cylinder, behind a plastic pane riddled with impact marks from bullets, lay the Foundation DRUID. It was at least one of them, though a second have been hidden behind the first. The DRUID supercomputer were merely knockoffs of the MAGI, created from stolen documents in the chaotic aftermath of the Second Impact. After some time the MAGI had been perfected; as a result NERV and the Foundation had taken vastly differ approaches to the biological supercomputers.

"We can rig an S2 singularity bomb, attach it to a C4 timer and blow this place to hell when were clear," the commander answered coldly, glancing noticeably towards the prone child as if disgusted by the abuse of such a child.

"Very well, do so." Shinji turned away as the commander began to motion his team into action. With his tongue Shinji shifted the frequency to the other teams to gain a status update. "Bravo, Tango status updates." He found an area near the wall and mostly clear of blood or body parts to lean against it in relief.

"This is Tango we've secured the primary target. On our way to see the sun."

There was only static from Bravo team. While he was glad Tango had recovered Kazehana, the silence from Bravo team left him nervous. "Understood Tango. Time to see the gates of the night." Silently, he wondered what may have befallen his lost team. "Bravo team respond!" He repeated his command with growing urgency. Something had gone wrong on that team. "Tango, where is Bravo?"

After a moment that seemed like ages Tango responded. "We were separated in the elevator shaft by a Foundation trap, some kind of explosive."

Shinji frowned at that. While it wasn't unreasonable to think an explosion could have passed unnoticed in this underground base he doubted he wouldn't have at least felt a tremor. It was possible he had missed it while he was entering or leaving the Angel State. "Repeat Tango, an explosive trap?"

"Copy that Agent. Bravo radioed in afterwards, said they'd been cut off from the primary target and had spotted Listed T-class; a Lister known as Doctor Rachel Pierson."

"Don't tell…" Shinji started in a horrified whisper. "They went after…this is bad…very bad!" He switched over to Bravo's channel hoping to hear something. "Bravo team, do you copy? Do not engage the Lister! I repeat do not engage the Lister! Disengage and fall back the gates of the night now!" He repeated his orders over and over in growing desperation, hoping they would hear them before she turned on them. Rachel Pierson was a monster created by NERV. A former student of Dr. Akagi, the two had gone their separate ways about two years before in a very public spat he had seen in person. Pierson ended up leaving NERV and took some of NERV's secrets with her as she jumped between mercenary science academies and various groups like the Foundation. The woman had a kill order on her head, but she was too dangerous for normal human to take on. She had a nasty habit of taking her own drugs, blurring the line between man and monster.

"….no can do…"

The brief message filled Shinji with dread and hope in equal measure before it fizzled away into static. He listened hard as the static rose and fell as if somewhere speaking, but their transmitter was breaking down.

"…two down… …. can't… … … … God!... …. …. ….DXM…. …. …NO!..."

The sound of gunfire reached him over the static and Shinji feared for the worst. Moment later his fears were confirmed.

"…dead…no… … …wounded… a monster! …. No help… … … Go without… … … sorry… … … we … …go … without…us!"

The radio went dead. Static filled the channel.

Shinji would have offered a prayer for those men if it would have done them any good. The DXM would devour their souls if it hadn't already. For the men of Bravo team there was no rest in death. They would become fuel for monsters to kill humans. They had known the risks when joining NERV and in honor of that he refused to shed a tear for them. They had done their duty, though it hurt him to think that he had gotten men killed again. The fact that nothing had changed hurt more than anything else. Everywhere he went it was always the same; other people got hurt and when he tried to do something about it even more were hurt. Repeatedly he told himself to give up caring and just live but it was always with him, lurking in the background for a moment of weakness.

"We're leaving," he told the commander. "Grab the child." He turned towards the door and walked towards it, limping slightly as he struggled with the side effects of the early fight. One of the soldiers offered him a shoulder, but he waved the man away. He had entered this base on his own two feet; he would exit this place on in his own two feet.

The smell of blood and feces was strong even as he left the room. Like he had seen across every battlefield, it never changed. The populace loved to think that time changes everything, but he knew otherwise. Nothing changed. War, death, life, love, sex, death, maiming it was all the same and had been the same since man first thought. Blood and war were all too familiar to him; the only thing that changed was the method. These Foundation men had been killed by men, he had killed men, women and children from Unit 01 and DXMs swatted humans into past with an errant thought.

The climb back up to the main lobby was slow and arduous. The soldiers were burdened by the hybrid they had recovered and two heavy databanks. It took two men to carry the databanks leaving them seriously undermanned should they be attacked, but there was nothing to be done about it. No one could have predicted the Foundation would be using some of the cutting edge databanks designed for the Federal Union military.

When he reached the top of the steps he almost smiled when he saw flat ground. He stepped past the open door, drawing the attention of every free gun. He didn't move for a moment until the other soldiers lowered their weapons, their visual on him being run though a portable NERV database currently flying at fifty thousand feet. "We've planted a bomb. I'd assume the rest of you have done the same," he asked the commander of Tango.

The man nodded. "Correct. S2 bombs set at strategic intervals, plus whatever Bravo… managed to set…" the commander finished slowly, not bothering to hide the remorse in his voice.

"Whatever killed them will die soon," he told the man, stepping past the man. Any response from the man was cut off by his Sekirei joyous shrieks from where they stood talking with the one he assumed as Kazahana. Saki rushed him, still dressed as Foundation woman from earlier though her guise was gone, and threw herself into his arms. Blood stained her clothes in several places. Her nihontou, a nodachi slung over her back and a tachi hanging off her belt, had been returned to her and he saw blood on their hilts.

"You're alright!" she exclaimed happily over and over as he barely caught his footing. She hugged him tight, as if reassuring herself he was still there. "I felt it…" she murmured in his shoulder. "I felt it…"

"Of course I am," he assured her. What had she felt? Then it hit him. An old theory Dr. Akagi had proposed about certain alien encounters of the nonviolent sort. "Though…how?" he asked her hesitantly. The answer might change everything or it could change nothing.

It was Taki who answered, having walked up and stood close to him. "All of our kind has a mild telepathic empathy trait. We bond with our mates for more than just DNA or out of instinctive drive. A bond allows us to focus our empathic traits with our mates and limit the number of outside influences that we could otherwise pick up on."

Shinji cursed his luck, though Taki's revelation explained several things. "Mild telepathic empathy, that's how you find your Ashikabi!" That would explain why Minaka had no problem releasing the Sekirei into Shin Tokyo. The man had been betting on their traits to drive his game forward and drag in ordinary people into a world they weren't ready for. Aliens were only the start and this trait almost ended any hope he had of one day giving up his life. Though telepathy could be blocked…_ No! I won't go down that route. Not yet at least._ There was unavoidable suffering and intentional suffering, one acceptable and the other unacceptable.

"Yep! That's how I found you," Saki cooed, letting go him slowly. "We should finish this job up first though, then we can talk more."

"Agreed," Shinji said as he turned to the surviving soldiers. "We're leaving." All he needed was the nods of the two commanders and the general exodus began. He began to move, Taki and Saki flanking him, and didn't plan to stop moving until he reached the crest of the hill. The Sekirei, Kazehana, was supported by two of the soldiers. Her tight purple dress was ripped and torn. Dried blood and bruises decorated her flesh, purple and yellow mixed with the blood that appeared black in the night.

The Disciplinary Squad strolled a few feet behind Kazehana. He didn't miss the fact that the youngest member of the Squad, Benitsubasa , was staring after her voluptuous kin with anger and every step she took radiated anger. Kazehana for her part ignored the angry glares and kept on walking as best she could. The wounds on her body left Shinji wondering just what the Foundation had put her though.

He sped up his pace to reach Karasuba. In some strange manner he felt that his chances of living were better with the unpredictable Black Sekirei rather than the clawed one or Benitsubasa 's short temper. "What happened to the primary target?"

"Hmmm…oh! It's you," she said with a strange smile. "Looks like you made it out in one piece." Karasuba bounced her naked blade slightly on her shoulder as she spoke. "These pathetic humans had her chained to this pillar type thing and this massive steel gate thing with all these strange markings. Not to mention a few…what did you call those things you guys hunt again?"

"XDMs," Shinji supplied. "You fought XDMs? What kinds? How did they fight I mean?"

"No, no, no," she responded teasingly waggling a finger, "not so fast. You'll ruin the story. Anyway, I kill a few humans in some kind of control room overlooking this pit room with a pillar in the center and this metal gate thing against the far wall. Suddenly these muscular human looking creatures appear on the bottom of the pit. Naturally, I drop in and slice 'em up. The other two," she gestured towards the other two Squad members, "work on cutting our wounded bird free. She was bound these thick steel cables and covered in those wound. I'm on the bottom you see, cutting up the last of those muscular idiots, when all of the sudden the gate starts to glow this strange blue color, I mean the who thing, even the metal, starts to glow. The markings all starting glowing and vibrate."

Shinji didn't need to be on hand to see what Karasuba was describing. It had to be a summoning gate; a semi-permanent rift between the world of man and the Angel world. While weaker beings could slip into the human reality by their own power, the more powerful ones such as the Seraphim, Kings and Pariahs were needed far more power from both sides though nothing was more important the rites to be performed by man to open the door. "Was it a Seraphim, Pariah or King?" he asked with baited breath. To think that such a gate might have been sitting right underneath his feet and at any moment could have allowed a world destroying monster out was chilling.

"I have no idea," she responded with an insolent grin. "So the gate starts to buckle, the metal stats to bend and something comes through. It looked like a gray cone, but then it broke into a bunch of long tentacles. These tentacles start lashing around, but they were slow. About this time your boys show up and they open fire. Kazahana has been freed and I saw no reason to stay, since lopping off tentacles was getting boring after the first few. The tentacles start to grab metal gate and twist and pull it apart. By now every few seconds more tentacles are starting to appear from the other side, the room is trashed and I'm bored. We leave and your boys start placing all these bombs as we retreat, the whole time I can hear the metal gate groaning and the walls of that room breaking. We reached the lobby and waited for you, and here we are, those of us who matter at least," she said her disdain for humans apparent.

"A Pariah…a Pariah…they had a damned Pariah Gate… They're insane…" Not only did her story reveal more about the Foundation's capabilities, but it made him fear for NERV. In theory NERV could open Terminal Dogma and use the Angel Gate to bring a Seraphim to fight a Pariah, but such a conflict would leave the world in shambles. "We have to go…now! Run!" They had to clear the area if the Pariah came through all the way.

The urgency in his voice must have encouraged the soldiers, though perhaps it was the naked fear he held of a Pariah coming into the world that gave his command power. It didn't matter either way. When they reached the hilltop overlooking the base he saw the Foundation men start to exit the base. "Taki!"

"Yes?" she answered stepping near him. "Is it time?"

"It is. Do as we planned and you'll be fine." Wasting no time he closer the short distance between them and kissed her swiftly. He tried to keep his eyes open for the telltale wings to appear as she moaned into the kiss. Wings of mist formed, glittering like little ethereal crystals in the icy light discharged from her Sekirei Crest. He broke the kiss after a few moments, causing Taki to pout slightly, a faint blush on her face.

"Ah! I want more…" Taki whined in a moment of rapture. "Business comes first though, I suppose," she said with a tinge of regret. She raised her right hand to the sky and chanted. "Horn of the night, summon the moonlight veil that rest in the valley; Blind those who oppose my Ashikabi! Eternal Misty Moon!"

The effect was instantaneous. The stars vanished overhead as a thick mist seemingly descended from nowhere. Within the moments the Foundation base vanished behind a thick mist. Shinji saw Taki concentrate, eyes furrowed and tight lipped, controlling the mist descending from the sky and forcing it the water molecules to gather. In essence the plan was simple; Taki would drown the Foundation base. Every room, every crack, every bit of space within the base would be filled with mists that would become fog and all life within the base would die.

"Detonate the charges on my mark," Shinji radioed. He saw a Foundation man escape the fog, running only to fall to the ground the moment he set foot outside the wall of fog, water pouring from his mouth. He prepared himself to give the order to kill countless men and women in the name of protecting humanity. Even the fact that they had built a Pariah Gate that was active left him with regret for the tears he didn't have to shed. _This is the price of my humanity._ "Three, two, one…mark!"

There was no hope for the Foundation base or the men inside.

* * *

><p>"Goddamn you Ikari! You and your goddamned luck!"<p>

Wisely, Shinji pulled the cellphone away from his ear when he answered the phone. The caller ID was enough to tell him the following conversation would devolve into claims of the rape of physics, destruction of venerated scientific ideas, and a several other grand claims about the death of science. Ritsuko Akagi had targeted him once more to be on the receiving end of another tirade.

"It's nice to hear from you to Dr. Akagi," he stated, trying to disarm the scientist's ire.

"You have the best damned luck in out of the every field agent we have! And I hate it!"

She sounded sleep deprived, if her crankiness was anything to go by. He had only left the hybrid in Tokyo-3 four days earlier and by the sound of the doctor's voice she hadn't slept since then. "Have you learned anything or is this a social call to verbally assault me?" He had more a few years of experience handling verbal abuse. Asuka had seen to that until she mellowed out a bit. Nowadays they could actually have a conversation that didn't devolve into screaming and cowering or running.

"A bit of both," she admitted, and then paused for a moment. She sighed in contentment, smacking her lips once. "Ah, coffee! Anyway, that thing you brought..."

"It's not a thing," Shinji protested. He wouldn't let the doctor make the girl who had been forced against her will to become a hybrid into a tool, a thing. It was the only thing he could do for the poor girl he honestly pitied. "It is a girl forced into a horrible fate. She's not one of your tools," he told her as evenly as he could.

"Oh? And since when did you care?" Dr. Akagi replied nastily. "You didn't care about those twins from China last year. Have you had a change of heart? Do you want to save them now too?"

"I don't need you to play psychologist on me!" he said stiffly. All he felt was pity for the girl; it was pity for another soul forced into a life it didn't want.

"Too bad I'm the best NERV has, so deal with it. I'll schedule a psych evaluation for you, now then let me see which days are open…" she trialed off to the sound of shuffling papers.

Shinji instantly regretted back talking to the woman who was the third in command of NERV. She had the power to recall him for an evaluation and even remove him if it appeared he might go rouge. After the incident with Tabris and the schism that followed Ritsuko Akagi had been granted far greater leeway and an expanded jurisdiction. He held his tongue; denial would bring more needless and groundless suspicion on him. _The hybrid wasn't worth it_, he reminded himself. _She's…no, it's a monster. An unholy creation of man that we have to end or more will come._

Dr. Akagi let out an exasperated sigh. "It's seems I've left my schedule elsewhere. Lucky you," she drawled.

"Oh yes, lucky me," he muttered, rolling his eyes. "What is the status of the…hybrid?"

"It's fine, raging and screaming all day and night. It tried to claw its host's eyes out the other day so it's restrained. I've almost lost two nurses to its acid thing, but those two will live with a few disfiguring scars across the face and upper body, but no real problem. Oh yes, it knows your name and it wants you."

"What?"

"According to the transcript," she coughed once to clear her throat, "it wants to rip off your arms and shove them up your asshole until you squeal like a pig. At which point it wants to skin you, still alive, rip your dick off and club you to death with it, and then wear your shattered skull as a hat, your eyes as a necklace and your toes as earrings, Very methodical, I must say," she darkly commented with an amused sound.

"She…It must be young. Instant death is better," he muttered darkly. "Anyway, was there anything else or was that message it?" He rose from the cushy armchair and stretched his legs, walking form one end of the conference room to the other.

"Other than the fact every action you take rapes everything I once thought was a paradigm in some new way, not much else." She paused for a moment to sip what could only be her coffee. "The Guardian Project, is it ready?"

"I have no idea, though I believe it may be near completion," Shinji lied. Takami had come to him a day after the raid on the Foundation. The Guardian was ready. The control factor, their only real piece in the coming game, needed one last thing before it would be dance to the tune they gave it. The sound of the conference room door speaking open caused him to whirl about abruptly. Takami stood in the doorway, hands on hips and an impatient look on her face. He mouthed the words 'call me' and the woman thankfully listened, flipping out her cell phone.

His phone beeped, indicating he had another call. "Sorry, I have another call. Was that all?" he asked in a false hurry.

"The Commander wants you to look into some files on some cult of something or other. The files should be in your hands by Thursday. Normal procedure and all that, and don't you dare bring another physics rapists in for the next four days!"

He welcomed the click after Dr. Akagi finished speaking. "Thank you, you saved me a great deal of trouble," he told Takami, walking towards her.

"Joy," she replied dryly. "You're going to get yourself killed. Or are you just trying to get everyone pissed off?"

He could only shrug. His duty was to fulfill the oath to defend humanity from all the threats. The horrors of the Angel War, the chaos and death that followed during every assault could never be allowed to happen again. No child would have their head crushed by an Angel leaving a body for the horrified parents to find in the shelter were they should have been safe, no pregnant mother eviscerated by a Seraphim talon while screaming as she held her guts and unborn child from spilling out, no father would be ripped to shreds while firing his hunting rifle in desperation against a Pariah…none of that would ever be allowed while he lived. As long as he, Asuka and Rei lived they would defend humanity because there was no one else. No one else could fight the monsters of humanity on their own terms and win. So long as the world needed them, they would fight. Even when they wished for death they would fight onwards on way or another. If they fell, he had no doubt they would be recreated to fight again. There was no choice. Endless war was their only option, their only path that would never advance or fall back.

"It's doesn't matter either way," Takami said then fixed him with a pointed stare. "The Guardian is ready. I've located a place for him to stay, a place Minaka can't get to him. And you're going there ahead of him to settle his payment with your NERV card in five minutes," she informed him with a nasty smile.

"What?" he almost squawked before he coughed once and regained his dignity. There was no reason to fight her in this. He knew there were times to bend and times to stand firm. "I mean, does such a place even exist and won't Minaka notice if I go there? I'd have such a place under constant surveillance especially if it wasn't owned by me in a city I all, but own."

Takami waved a hand in dismissal. "Don't worry about that. I'll take care of Minaka and your cover will be fine. Just get in the damned car waiting for you at the entrance and go. Don't bother coming back until you've got the Guardian a room."

Suppressing the urge to sigh Shinji swiftly grabbed his jacket, but didn't put it on. "You're a very forceful woman; can you at least tell me where I'm going?"

"Izumo Inn," she stated flatly.

"Izumo…" his voice died. He knew that place, or rather he knew the woman who ran it. If Takami wanted to place the Guardian there, they he really would be beyond the reach of MBI. "You're a coward, sending me to deal with her" he hissed at her. "You can't face her after what happened to Takehito…" He purposely trialed off, there was no need to bring up more of the past.

Unsurprisingly, Takami bristled and glared at him. "What happen was an accident, none of us ever meant it to happen and if I'm not here that bastard will notice. Then he finds the Guardian and makes our tool into a tool of his own."

"Don't lie to me," he snapped. "He was a friend of mine too and you're sending me to his widow! Do you want me to die? She probably holds me accountable for his death!" The last he wanted to do was confront Takehito's widow. That woman was scary and, moreover, extremely powerful. She could easily kill him if she went all out from the start of their fight. "It's not me you need to worry about, but Saki and Taki. Those two will find out if anything happens to me," he warned her needlessly.

Takami folded her arms as their eyes met, stormy eyes clashed with eyes of granite. "The time isn't right. I can't confront her yet. There's too much between us that would make me dealing her with her impossible. You have a better chance than me and I'm your boss, so I say do it now!"

"Fine," Shinji accepted angrily. "On my epitaph I want you put 'killed following orders of woman who can't stand another woman because of a petty feud', just to immortalize your petty nature." The last comment was purposely barbed and he knew it would sting. Takehito and the circumstances around his death left many unhealed wounds and too many question marks. The killer was still unknown, though he had a sneaking suspicion that Minaka knew the killer or more about the killer than he said. He pushed past her and made for the elevator.

While he waited for the door to ding open, he threw on his jacket. At least when he went to his death he would have his jacket. Then his blood could join the blood of those he had killed. It would be oddly fitting for his crimes. "Miya… please don't let her hurt me too much," he prayed to any higher power that might be listening.

_DING!_

* * *

><p><em>AN: Explanation behind the swords: In the Sekirei wiki, Saki is said to use Japanese swords, nihontou, which is a catchall term for samurai swords. I decided to go with the larger members of the nihontou family since Saki is no human. Miya uses Totsuga No Tsurugi with a two handed style and we know Sekirei are stronger than humans so it's not too much of a stretch to think that other, younger Sekirei might try to dual wield weapons, that normal humans couldn't, to imitate or rival Miya/Karasuba. _

_In this universe, Angels are classified as xenos along with Sekirei and Pariahs. The hybrid is a demon/human and the monsters have yet to be introduced. _

_XDM-Xeno, demon, monster_

_Pariah/Seraphim-world destroying xenos (two different species)_

_King- world destroying demon_

_Devourer(not mentioned in universe yet)- most powerful and ancient of monsters _


	3. Chapter 3

Shinji watched the sky roll by as the car pulled up to the Izumo Inn. He had been to it just once, right after Takehito had purchased the place, and those were the last good memories he had of the Inn before his world went to hell. Takehito's sudden death had been the catalyst for many terrible things that he wished had been avoided. Minaka's madness had been tempered by Takehito and perhaps this insane game Minaka wanted to play with innocent lives might have been averted or at least adjusted to non-lethal levels, but the man was dead. The dead no longer interacted with the living. That was the rule.

Slowly, he opened the door and stepped onto the curb. From the other door the Guardian emerged, dressed in an un-tucked white shirt and black pants that emphasized his thin frame that seemed almost too small for a human. "Homura," Shinji beckoned the gray haired Guardian to join him as he marched towards the small covered porch and the sliding shoji screen door that he dreaded to step past.

Would Miya greet him with cool indifference or naked steel? He could think of a thousand different reactions she would have to his presence. Fear grew in the pit of his stomach and he began to question his resolve. Homura gave him a curious look as he slowed his walk, but Shinji was preoccupied with other matters. If she struck first he would have less than a second to react…he could strike first and he might succeed…

Two steps to the door…

That was all…

Two steps to open an old wound…

Two steps that might determine how much longer he might live…

The door opened.

"Oh my!"

That voice… a voice that hadn't changed in years and a hand that covered her mouth, a familiar gesture. It was the voice of a purple haired woman clad in a purple hakama, a white haori tied by a deeper shade of purple sash he knew all too well. Miya Asama… "It's been a long time," he said after a moment, scanning her body language for any signs of aggression.

"You're still alive…" she whispered as if in wonder. She shifted the basket in her hands and her eyes narrowed as she looked behind him, towards the car. "And you still have the same job as always," she said tensely.

Her mistrust of MBI was well founded and he knew how it might appear to her. His mere presence could have been seen as an act aggression against her and then the destruction would begin. NERV would have to intervene and send in soldiers to be slaughtered as they fruitlessly would try to contain the situation. Miya and Karasuba would clash shortly thereafter. Shin Tokyo would burn to ashes and the world would see the truth of the world humanity lived in, a world they weren't ready for. "I have a request," he told her tensely. "It concerns your…kin."

"My! You still have no manners," she said teasingly. "I was just about to go shopping for dinner. So rude," she exclaimed with faux exasperation. "Do come in," she said, as she started to room her shoes.

Shinji almost let himself believe she was as relaxed as she had been around Takehito, but he knew an act when he saw one. She was putting up a front and the Guardian was most likely the only reason. If he had come alone she might have attacked him, but the Guardian was a newcomer and she wouldn't show that side of herself to a stranger.

"Miya…" Shinji began, but fell away as he followed her example.

"Hmm?" She stopped a step from the kitchen and looked at him darkly, a stark constant to the seemingly innocent nonverbal question.

"I…" Words failed him. He couldn't think of anything to say. "…never mind. Wait in the living room?"

"Calling a beautiful, young widow's name so familiarly…you've become very daring," she teased, implying more than she said, as she stepped into the kitchen.

"Follow me," he told the Guardian as the alien removed his outdoor shoes. Shinji walked into the living room and was taken back, to long nights spent planning around the very table he saw again, quick smiles and laughs from bad jokes, waking up in the morning surrounded by sake, Miya's faux anger towards Seo for some poorly thought out plan involving an improvised driving range and so much more.

"Are you alright?"

The Guardian. Shinji realized he had lost his focus, a dangerous thing to do in this place. "Ah, I'm fine. Just some…memories." He took a seat at the table, his back to the entry way, as Miya reappeared, laden tray in hand. Silently, she poured the tea. Shinji took the offered cup; inhaling the scent of the tea he had never been able to discern the exact ingredients.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Homura hesitantly take the cup, giving Miya a guarded look. It seemed that even the Guardian wasn't sure what he thought of the eldest living alien. Finally, Miya sat down and for many moments the tea held their attention, though Shinji saw her studied him out of the corner of her eye. He returned the action and the alien turned her attention to Homura, not doubt studying the judging the younger alien.

"The time has come," Shinji told Miya, breaking the silence. He set his tea cup down and place his hands in his lap. "Soon the Plan will begin. Will you take a side or not?"

She raised an incredulous eyebrow. "Is that how you want to start? You should be groveling for forgiveness," she said innocently, though the unspoken threat.

"I had nothing to do with that," he protested evenly. It seemed she still thought of herself as the goddess of her kind. That was a dangerous delusion for any being that didn't have the power to back up that audacious claim, though she had power in excess. So had the Angels, and they were dead. Slain by the hand of the seemingly weakest of all of creation; now humanity, in parts at least, fought thegod-like beings in their own homes.

"I'm sure," she replied dryly. "I am a young widow. Why should I take a side in the game of CEOs and Generals, where demons and angels fear to tread?" Her tone left no question that she would reject any offer.

It was no use. Trying to convince her to side Takami and NERV was still useless. She was sick of war and he had asked her to return to war, though it would come to her one way or another. "I understand," he said, accepting her stance for the time being. "I'll be blunt, the Guardian is the linchpin in our plans to undo this mad Plan or at least keep it in check. We need him safe until all the younger ones find their Ashikabi." There, he played all his cards on the table and now it was Miya's turn.

The female alien was silent. She sipped her tea and watched him intently. "My husband would never turn anyone in need away, nor will I. I will not accept MBI's card though or NERV's for that matter."

That was irksome. He wanted to be gone quickly. She would not side with them and he knew he would say something stupid eventually if he stayed. "Fine, I don't know why you would turn away NERV. We are backed by the United Nations and Japan, our credit is perfectly good," he struck back.

"You are a multinational band of mercenaries who work for pay, lack any thing could be called morals, assassination is your favorite tool to suppress anyone who opposes you, sabotage your competition in lethal manners is commonplace and your first backers tried to end the world once. Why should I accept blood money?" she asked pointedly, placing her tea cup on the table.

"Because you no different than us. You and I, NERV and MBI all of us will burn together for the sins we've committed," he stated flatly. She was trying to claim the high ground and he wasn't about to let her gain such an advantage, even though she already had the advantage of the home field.

She gave him an amused look. "Why should a goddess suffer with you mortals?"

The unspoken words spoke volumes. She claimed she would never die and he was almost inclined to believe it. She hadn't aged a day since Minaka found her. The last thing the human race needed was an alien with a god complex and immortality when he and the rest of NERV were long gone, even though it might be a long time before such a thing happened. "The world has no need of a goddess or any immortals. Let all things die in their time."

Miya didn't rise to the challenge; she shrugged slightly and looked at him. Shinji returned her gaze stoically. Each knew the other was sizing them up; two titans circling each other looking for an opening they might exploit, and both sides were equally unwilling to back down. He would bring this goddess down himself if he had to. The Angels had thought themselves gods of humanity, masters who could terminate their experiment any moment, and they had been broken by humanity. No longer would the servants of the alien god called ADAM be allowed to live. If he could slay Angels and see ADAM destroyed then he knew breaking this other alien goddess was possible.

Slowly the world faded away. There was nothing beyond them. He felt the room vanish as he stared into the purple eyes of the alien goddess. There was no floor, no walls, no table, no Inn, no city, no country, no world, only endless blackness as this strange space manifested. "What is this place?" he asked, still locking eyes with the alien. His words seemed to come from every direction at once, resounding echoes as though he had spoken with the mouth of ten thousand men.

"Nowhere and everywhere, the endless and finite, this is the beginning and ever-after." Her eyes were utterly still. They betrayed no thoughts or emotions, utterly alien eyes so far removed from humanity. "I want you to see something," her words came from every direction, resounding in his skull, "a certain truth," anger was apparent in her words as the endless blackness was tainted by a faint red.

A pinprick of light, bright and radiant in the endless void appeared in the reflection of purple eyes. Only by the reflection in her eyes could he see the world around him. "This is your mind!" he realized too late. He had walked right into her trap without even seeing it. She had lured him in and now she was the master. He had entered the domain of an alien goddess like a fool.

* * *

><p>Berlin-2 was many things, but safe was not one of them. Blasted into a crater after the Second Impact Wars and rebuilt by refugees, the once great city had fallen far. Sites once rich in history and pride were covered in the mad scrawls of squatters; where valiant warriors had once stood in memorial eternal, only the ladies of the night hunted for the money of the unfortunate. It was little wonder in a city of despair that the people would turn to any force who might offer them a chance of a better life. In the dark nights, as smog from the factories cast its foul blanket over the city, one woman hunted the most dangerous of beasts.<p>

High atop the industrial tower, she waited and watched the city below. The silver ring holding her long red hair back glinted faintly in the weak moonlight. Her leather coat hung limply in the stagnant air. Blood slowly dried on her face and clothes. Behind her, a trial of bloody bootprints marked her path to her observation post. The coppery tang was welcome. Blood, the life of humans and monsters, even the Angels had bled. All things bled and she would kill them if they bled.

"Captain!"

Asuka didn't react to the familiar voice. "Keep your voice down," she hissed, continuing her survey of the city unabated.

"Ah, sorry!" the approaching girl offered sincerely. "The local commander says it's time to move out. She doesn't want to run the risks of losing another life to the Wolves."

"Bah!" the red head scoffed. "I don't care. These Ghost Wolves are idiots, but humans are worse."

"But you're a human," the girl protested quietly joining her mentor on the edge.

"Am I?" She turned to the girl and exposed her face. The right side of her face was a mass of scars, the unhealing eye milky white, giving her a fearsome visage. "And that's just my face," she chuckled darkly as the girl shuddered at the horrifying sight. "NERV has done things…I'm no mere human, less human is more likely. Worse than a human…and to think they once called us heroes and had hope in us monsters. Idiot humans," she snickered, mocking the human race that had scarred her face and broken her soul for their petty games.

"But we're fighting to save humanity!" the girl protested. "You're still a hero because hero's save people. You saved that group of kids last night after all. I don't think anyone other than a human would have done that," the girl passionately insisted, trying to gather the courage to look back at her mentor's face.

"First off, heroes don't save people. People save people, heroes chose who lives and who dies," she stated bleakly. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the girl shake her head as if rejecting her words. "Secondly, last night was intentional. I knew that Wolf boy was near so I lured him out with some tasty human girl snacks after he saw me. I couldn't let my presence be announced to their leader before I fill him with bullets." That a wolf boy had her worried anyway. He had recognized her two seconds after seeing her. Did the German clans already know her face that well? He had been strong for a child, but she was better. Wrenching his jaw off with her hands had been taxing, but worth the message it would send. "Thirdly, there is no 'we'. In six months you'll be modified and most likely you will die during or shortly after the operations. You and I are two separate species. Don't claim to be what you're not. I can't see why anyone would want to be like us anyway…" she trailed off darkly.

It was a miserable existence, more of a half-life than a real life. Normal things that should have amused her were dry and stale. All that she had once considered fun was a chore. Food was dust in her mouth and it had only been a few years. Where once she had seen color she saw only shades of gray. Day and night were one and the same. Life was the bland existence, but the price she had paid for this power she sought to master. Was the power worth the price? She didn't know, maybe it was and maybe it wasn't, but she wasn't alone in it. The only thing she found pleasure, amusement and everything else she had once known was a purpose, a fundamental purpose she had lost in becoming…whatever she was trapped between Angels and humans. In the end she would have others to stand beside in this confusion that was her life, but they were equally confused. Each of them dealt with it in their own way; Shinji wished to die in time, but she wasn't sure that he was completely truthful. This had been the power needed to fight for the world like she had always done, no matter the cost. Perhaps in time she would grow tired of life and seek what Shinji did, but the thrill of battle was a stimulant, a flash of color in the gray, but never more than a flash and only half as long.

"And what if I survive?" the girl challenged defiantly, crossing her arms. "I'll become a hero! I'll show you that you can save everybody, even you."

She barked in laughter at the little firecracker beside her who refused to die. "Then you'll live long enough to see yourself become a monster worse than us. The people," she gazed out over the city sprawled out below. It had once been the city that had screamed her name, praising her actions and NERV, but no longer. She had returned not as a triumphant battle queen, but as an assassin slipping in with the night. They hated her, the people of the world hated the pilots who saved them and still fought for them. Even if they were ungrateful, she had to fight for them. So long as NERV existed she would too. She was their dog, trained and hooked by the drugs that sustained her perfect body. "The people will," she began again, "turn on anyone who saves them. It's human nature, pitiful and weak willed beings will never see the larger picture."

"You really don't consider yourself human," the girl stated in a horrified whisper. "You've turned your back on us."

"Humanity? Yes I have. The other two might have some small measure of faith in you people that will soon die," she predicted. "Me, I'm beyond that fool's errand. Time reveals all truths and I've always matured faster than those two," she said faintly amused. Her body was the pinnacle of what humanity called beautiful and equally untouchable. She wouldn't allow them to see the glory they had rejected. Her tightly military jacket was almost always buttoned up and the half maple leaf on the left breast kept all but the most drunken fool away from her. One did not mess if NERV, that was the message they had sent in slaughtering the Japanese Self Defense Force like vermin. Three Evangelions, three pilots filled with wrath and childish fury had slaughtered ever tank, plane, body, bomb, bullet, and experimental weapon the Japanese government and the UN had to throw at them.

"I'll never give up on humanity!" the girl vowed, looking at over the city. "Even when I become one of the Accursed, I'll be the hero they want. I'll save them and I'll save you," she turned to the woman, wide brown eyes full with youthful innocence and naiveté. "I'll save you all from yourself!"

"Then kill us and then yourself," she suggested grimly. The last thing she needed was a nigh immortal fool like Elizabeth, running around trying to redeem them from some perceived darkness. It could be done; this girl could become a hero, but never the one the world wanted. Perhaps the hero they needed, but she would be vilified and she would be brow beaten into a pale, drunken half-life of staggering bar to bar and hotel room to hotel room drunkenly selling her body to pay for her drinks.

"Why would I do that? That would make people sad," Elizabeth asked confused, tilting her head curiously.

"Sad? Really, sad?" She let out a hollow laugh. "Sad, that's amusing. I guess the Commander assigned you to me to keep me assumed." Her lips curled upwards slightly as she saw lights moving, torches of all things. It seemed the Ghost Wolves liked tradition. They would love her. "So the prey reveals itself at last," she said, getting ready to do violence. "Get down to the local bitch. The targets are on the move. Reinforce the command not to strike until I'm done," she commanded turning a bit to get a better look at the girl.

Slowly and unsteady, Elizabeth was starting to pick her way back towards the ladder that hung off the side, a look of dread on her face at the prospect of climbing down, but determined to do it anyway. When the girl vanished over the edge, the woman sighed. "Naïve brat." The torchbearers were moving towards her. They would soon pass beneath her lookout post. "Time to kill," she told herself in an excited whisper.

The implants in her body came to life. Fire coursed in her veins as they hummed, shaking her very bones. Pain and pleasure sensitivity became intense as various nerve synapses were triggered over and over. She forced the change to happen, pushing her unconscious desire to remain whole away; she dared to be more than human. To be above the other mortals was exhilarating. To see the world as the Angels saw it, the shadowy world of men that flickered and danced was a testament to the inherent frailty of the human creation.

Without fear she stepped off the tower. She let herself fall, the bright shadows of the torches becoming brighter flickers as they approached her. They would be given no warning. She shaped her AT field and formed a barrier beneath her feet. Compressing the air and increasing the gravity beneath her feet created the impact weapon she wanted. She crashed into the shadowy figures of the Wolves with an artificial roar and crack. Those near her impact zone were crunched in a moment, leaving nothing beyond a pile of bloody flesh and bone shards. The flickering troches were dropped in shock and Wolves leapt into action.

"Stupid pups," she scoffed, as she crafted anInversion Field. As the Wolves found themselves leaping away she crafted a thousand lances from the rock of Berlin, anointed by the ancient and powerful blood of her forefathers. They rose around her, pointing in every direction, as the first Wolf figuring out the trick of the Inversion Field. He leapt towards her, his shadowy face more beastly than human, and she pointed at him. A lance obeyed by unspoken command and the Wolf was skewered before he knew what happened.

Spurred on by bloodshed, driven mad by the smell of blood in the air, the other Wolves charged her with animalistic howls and feral growls. She dropped the Inversion Field and swung her arms in the wide arch, front to back, open palms pointing to her charging wolves. She marked the targets, shadowy figures marked by a red spot she called Fairy Fire. None could feel the flames of the fairies that marked death's newest converts. The targets were set, her lances were ready, and she uttered the unnecessary command, "Die!"

They died in droves, each skewered by ten or more lances, but she didn't seek to intentionally kill. She had planned to take prisoners; some might still survive the barrage giving her some solace. Heightened sense told her there was none left standing, only ragged breath and pain cries filled the air as the pups died. She looked about at the carnage for any more enemies, but was disappointed to find none of these pups still stood. They hadn't provided as much entertainment as she had thought. The rumors and intelligence reports had always placed them as much more competent fighters.

Familiar shapes approached as NERV agents and local military police rolled up. "A pity, I wished they had put up more of a fight," she complained as she watched the wall of building impaled by her lances crumble. The street was smashed from her impact, blood, clothing, and fur covered the ground, but it wasn't enough. They hadn't even gotten her heart beating hard. If they had a King…she longed to slaughter one of those legends, but legends didn't become legends by making themselves easy to find.

"Goddamn you Soryu!" The loud voice of the female commander of the local military police snapped angrily, just a shadow flicker in the shape of a human female. Her voice was as an echo, weak in the real world, yet strong in the human world.

"Just doing my job," Ausuka replied coldly. She didn't want to put up with the local bitch commander. They had never see eye to eye and never would; of that she was sure of. How could an ant comprehend the mind of the man who held it imprisoned? The Accursed were no humans; they were less than human, more than human, but not human. She had never been human, some might argue. Groomed form childhood to fight monsters, made into a monster of man. She had been a monster masquerading as a human until they let her out, to let her become what she truly was. She was an eldritch goddess of humanity and this local bitch thought herself above that which she should be groveling. Humans were a truly arrogant species, incapable of gratitude to those whom it was due.

"You're good isn't to make this place look like one of your battlefields in the east! You were supposed to leave some of them alive! You know, to interrogate! Instead you put them up on your damned crosses!"

Asuka slowly eased herself back into her body. She had never had issues retaking her human shape, she hated the Angels enough that she would never become like them. They had broken her and made her into the monster she was, at least in part. Humanity had taken her mother from her and screwed up her life long before the Angel completed the transformation. "Oh that!" Asuka muttered as she saw the crucified Wolves in the street and hanging from the buildings. Many had more than four lances pinning them to the walls. "No symbols there," she commented as she started to walk away. "I'll the rest to you Miss Bitch," she called out, waving her hands dismissively. The sound of a hammer being cocked made Asuka halt with a smirk on her face.

"Stay there!" Miss Bitch commanded angrily. "You move and I swear I'll fill you with bullets."

"Really? Will you? Can you? No, wait," she slapped her forehead in mock drama, "that's a rhetorical question. You would shoot me…if you could hit me," she proclaimed haughtily. A simple bullet was mere metal and slow, bound by the rules humanity thought governed the universe. She knew the true rules and she would abuse them to the utmost. Even death was not the end and mortal wounds were hardly fatal to a being on her level, slightly above or below human. Humans were so very limited; it had taken Dr. Akagi and NERV high command years to recognize that and respond appropriately.

"Don't you dare mock me! Ever since you came here you've mocked everything we stand for! Our pride, our honor, our values, our methods, our very lives! Everything! Now you're mocking our ways of taking down criminals!"

Asuka slowly turned around and showed the Bitch a smirk worthy of the greatest villains of the American cinema. The Bitch was a tight lipped, middle aged, German woman, in a black business suit much like the NERV agents seeking a still living Wolf, trying to pull a living one from the lances. Her black hair was pulled back into a bun that made her look older and the sleep deprivation along with the stress marks on her face were no compliment to her real age.

"Do not move!"

"Adalia, Adaila, Adaila…" Asuka accented each repetition of the Bitch's name with a single, slow step. "You can't even hit me with your silly toy," she hissed. "I do as I please, walk as I please, speak as I please, and you," she was kept closing the distance between them as the Bitch's resolve seemed to waver. The gun in her hands trembled. "are," another step, "less," four long steps to the gun pointed at her long gone heart, "than," three steps, "dirt!" Two steps, "Mortal," one step, "TRASH!"

Asuka wrenched the gun from Adalia's nerveless hands. She had slipped into the Angel state a bit while with reach step and condensed the air behind her into dark cloud so the woman might understand the difference between them, but the primal fear of humanity had done more work on Adalia than anything Asuka was willing to try with the Angel state. Unlike Rei she had never mastered the ability to project fear or tap into the unconscious influenced human underwent every moment of existence, but the fear of the unknown, especially the known and powerful unknown had worked in Asuka's favor.

In a seamless motion her other hand went to Adalia's throat. She lifted the taller woman easily as she gasped her breath. She was well aware of the military police turning their guns on her, but the NERV agents were above such things. They knew their place and continued with the jobs assigned to their systems. "Listen to me carefully bitch! I'm no angel sent from heaven or a demon from hell or whatever the hell you want to think! I've walked as a god, fought as a god, commanded as a god, sacrificed as a god and became a god! The only reason I listen to my superiors and came to this traitorous city to solve your damned vermin control problems is because I'm an enslaved goddess.

There is no beginning, no end for you. I've seen the beginning and the end as only a god can! You, what are you? A lowly worm! Less than a worm! In the greater world beyond your useless sight you're nothing! Calling you trash is a disfavor to trash. For all the alien and demon care you are a nothing, a speck of dust to be wiped away when you get annoying. Be happy none of them have decided to clean their homes and sweep out all you bits of dust, because I won't come to save you! I'm the perfect monster of humanity! You people created me and this is the truth you have to live with. You people made me into a goddess so I suffer you to live, but I don't care about you.

Your pride, your ways are nothing! Trash, useless baggage that keeps humans bound in your stupidly limited perception of reality. Everything you care for is dust; soon to pass into nothingness and you along with it. Praise my name that I might still stand to defend you miserable bastard offspring called humans. Praise my name and I might allow you to live out your days before you're swept aside, vainly hoping to defeat forces far beyond your power and beyond your perception! Praise my name! Praise my name!" She let the woman fall to the ground, having heard her gasps for air grow more and more desperate.

Scornfully, she looked to Adalia lying on the ground, coughing and wheezing as she tried to regain breath. "Run back to your leaders, little whore of the government! Tell them everything I've said, you slave who reaches for the heavens! Sell them your story about the reality we now live in. Tell them to praise my name and I might lower myself to save you from the next threat. When you sleep at night remember it is I who stands watch to keep the human dust from being extinguished without a care or thought by those who see you and your 'pride' as nothing, but dust! Praise my name forever and you might not live to see all of this wiped away! Praise my name forever because I spared you!" Fury grew in her eyes as she let her anger and frustration come forth in a final, lethal barrage. She grabbed Adalia by the shirt collar and hoisted the woman level to her face. "NEVER POINT A FUCKING GUN AT ME!"

Stone crunched beneath her boots. She was keenly aware of the lack of movement. Even the NERV agents had frozen. Only the crunching of small stones and weak gasps of a terrified woman filled the street. In the distance the sound of cars could be made out, but she didn't care. None of it mattered, not this city in the slightest. They had betrayed her, left her to rot in NERV for nothing more than political power. She had returned only to put to death all her ghosts and finally turn away from the city and nation of traitors. Never again would she return to this city or this German nation. They were dead to her, dead in the eyes of the goddess and she did not flirt with the dead.

"Praise my name," she repeated the words under her breath. "Praise my name, praise my name, praise my name, praise my name, praise my name, praise my name, praise my name, praise my name. She slipped into the Angel state, her anger keeping her from feeling the pain for the moment. She negated gravity around her and soared upwards, not once looking to the men and women below who watched her go with naked fear.

"Praise my name," she told the sky as she halted her ascent high over the tallest spire of the city. "Praise it, damn you!" she cursed the city. "Praise the monster you created, praise my name! That was all I ever asked for and you refuse now. Where is the pride you told me of? Where is it? Where is it? Why lie to me? Why not tell me the truth? I was a pawn and I knew it from the start. You coddled me however briefly and sent me to die in the foreign land, bleed on foreign soil, die far from home all for you and your lies of pride!" Her anger towards the human race and her city had finally broken free. Years of building up and she had finally exploded, but she wasn't done.

Adalia had only been the start. The remaining Wolves would be reeling back and in panic. The rest of NERV could sweep them up and the matter of the Ghost Wolves would be finished once the last Wolf was sealed up in the Tyrannus Dogma. She had time to tend to her other affairs. All the ghosts of her past were set to die and this city would pay for its betrayal. She would make the streets run red with blood, she would drown them in their own shit and piss and more if she had to. Men would answer for the lies they had fed her. The power they had abandoned her for wouldn't save them from her wrath. She could only smirk at the foolish dust that lived below her. She flung her arms wide and proclaimed to the sleeping city, "I am no hero. No black knight or anything like that. I'm the monster of Berlin and I've come home!"

* * *

><p><em>AN: Yes this chapter in uncommonly short. Normally I want my chapters to be twice this length, but I can't find a good way to go on without ruining the feel. Asuka's part is an emotionally charged part and, to be frank, a fun character to write. As you can clearly see she has serious issues…_

_With Miya I wanted to go a route few others explore, the fact that she is utterly alien. In her own words she's not Sekirei and certainly not human. In this fic she is as alien as the brief alien encounter described by Karasuba in the last chapter, utterly beyond humanity in terms of power and more._

_In the background there is a song of unseen destruction playing as the greatest foes of humanity marshal their dark forces to bring the endless night to Shin Tokyo as the curtain rises on the grand play of humans and Sekirei…_


	4. Chapter 4

Unseen prismatic flash heralded the return from the alien mind. Shinji, heaving and gasping for breath, almost fell forward. He managed to stop his fall by desperately grabbing at the table edge. The teacups rattled. Slowly he started to try to calm his erratic breathing. Breath came in short gasps and the world was silent to his hears. All he could here was the endless grinding of death of phantom echoing that resounded in the deep. His eyes bright burnt, though nothing was wrong with them, the images of death and haunting phantasms danced in his eyes in horrid, vivid color no sane man might see and retain their sanity. Where there really that many colors?

Homura moved to his side, quickly kneeling and placing a concern hand on Shinji's shoulder. "Are you all right?" he asked with concern then looked up to the somber landlady. Anger blazed in his eyes as small flames tickled his closed fist, "What did you do?"

The landlady merely picked up her tea with delicate hand and took a sip. "Nothing he wasn't ready for," she answered enigmatically. "I'll have no fighting in the Izumo house. Put away those flames. I wouldn't hurt Mr. Ikari...too much," she added with a hint of a satisfied smirk appearing on her lips.

Slowly Homura unclenched his fist and let his flames die down. He gave the purple haired landlady one last angry look. She might be kin by Takami's claims, but as far as he was concerned he had nothing in common with her. She was utterly alien even to him. A heavy silence fell over the room, only broken by the uneven heaves of the older man.

Homura tried to gently pry him into a sitting position, but Shinji kept his iron grip on the table. Giving up and no trusting the landlady he folded his legs beside Shinji, keeping a wary eye on the Miya. The table might give him a fraction of second to react, but it was enough time to react. Placing his hand on his knees, he mentally prepared himself to act if his fellow alien chose violence.

"Was that… no, it really was…" Shinji muttered as he regained a regular breathing cycle. He loosened his death grip on the table and raised his eyes to Miya, who keep lightly shut her eyes and wore that insufferable half smirk. In his mind he was glad it wasn't the stone cold killer she had been, but for a brief moment he could see a bit of Karasuba in her. If there was any doubt Miya and Karasuba were of the same stock then it was the insufferable half smirk they both loved to wear.

"Are you okay?" Homura asked again. "What happened?"

"Exactly what you saw," Miya answered before taking a long sip of her tea. She began to refill it leaning forward slightly., as her arms move Homura started to bring a flame to life She gave him a bemused look and raised an eyebrow at his hands were a thin wisp of smoke spiraled lazily into the air. "I won't kill him. If I wanted to do that, I would have a long time ago."

"That doesn't answer the question. I've seen Angels and worse, but…that thing… Is that even a thing?" Shinji insistently asked, righting his position. He felt the after effects, his entire being quivered uncontrollably. He felt his heart racing from fear of the unknown the likes of which he hadn't felt in a long time. Yet it wasn't all fear that made his heart race. There was more to it than that. He knew what it was and hated it.

Excitement. He was excited to meet a being that could utterly crush him, yet all he could think of was the fight. The idea of fighting that monster that could crush him so completely and utterly sent his mind spiraling into dark places he hadn't walked in years. Asuka bathed in those emotions, but he was a different breed, or so he liked to think even if it was a mask, a convenient mask that let him walk as one of the rest of humanity even if it were as a lie.

He heard Homura ask after his health again and was brought back to the limited reality of humanity and most Sekirei. The Guardian plan. He had a task, a mission to start and a madman's plan to put into check. "Will you accept him, Miya? I don't ask you to defend him, Homura is more than capable of that," he gave the gray haired Sekirei a sidelong glance. It was strange how the alien was concerned about his health, he had no real ties to fire-user beyond a handful combat lessons in which he had uttered crushed the alien.

"I will," she said curtly. "As for the matter of rent, I will work that out with him myself. Your presence is no longer needed."

Her intent was clear. It was time for him to leave. His part in this matter was down. The Guardian had been planted and it was time for the gardener to leave it alone to root deep into the earth. He stood on shaky legs. "Thank you for your hospitality," he quietly said with a small bow of his head. He didn't trust his balance. "Homura, you're things will be sent here by tomorrow morning," he reminded the Sekirei quickly and started for the door. Miya didn't move a muscle, but Homura followed after him.

As he slipped his shoes on, the fire-user kept asking after his health. He noted with some amusement that it was almost as if he were the Guardian's Ashikabi. Taki and Saki would be more than annoyed by such a strange twist of fate, even though Homura's gender was indeterminable. The experiments and testing had seen to the verification of that, but it was hardly a good thing if any of the projections by the MAGI were correct. When MBI had fed the information to NERV the MAGI hadn't given the Guardian a gender even in their longest range projections without extreme outside influences beyond the ones MBI claimed would be allowed into the city.

"Homura," he said firmly before he opened the door, "I'll be fine. What happened was an accident and no fault of Miya," he smoothly lied. He had become all too good at lying to everyone these last few years. "I suggest you get comfortable here and get to know your new landlady. She can be fun at times," he said then cut himself off. There was no need to say more. It would only lead to nostalgia of bygone days that would never come again.

"But-" the alien began to protest, raising a hand towards him.

"No buts," Shinji commanded causing the Sekirei to drop his hand and a stubborn look to appear on the alien's face. "You have your duty and I have mine. We both do our duty and maybe we'll be able to meet when this madness comes to an end. Though it might be over a desolate city or worse," he added sadly. There were never good results when one let aliens rampage and battle in a city. Add humans, the warmongering animals that they were, and all that might be left might be a few fire brunt hulks of civilization. Then again, if he failed in his duty then the same thing would spread without even the slightest form of control.

Opening the door, he shakily stepped into the light, leaving the Guardian in a strong position to wreak havoc on the Plan when the time came. Soon the battle would start and the city would be consumed by war.

* * *

><p>"Damnit! I give up," Saki complained, throwing the notebook on the table. She leaned back and stretched, reaching for the roof of their apartment. The sound of papers crumpling to the floor and other notebooks hitting ground was a nice, if brief, change of pace from the classical score Taki had insisted upon playing earlier. She would have and still wanted to change it something heavier, music with some weight behind it.<p>

"Watch you language," Taki chided from across the coffee table.

"Yeah, yeah I'll think about it," she replied noncommittally with a dismissive flick of her hand towards the mist-user. "This all bunch of nonsense anyway. Symbols, fragments of sentences. It's like a bored kid just decided to start drawing in his notebook. There's no connection to anything other than a mental ward. Is it normal to mention bloodletting at three times a pages?"

Taki sighed and gently placed the text, a slightly thicker and older than the notebook by a great many years, then began to straight up the papers that had fallen. "You do realize this is our job now. We have to deal with this sought of thing. It's what Shinji asked of us and it's not exactly boring."

Saki leaned forward and gave her sister Sekirei a skeptical look. "Human occult knowledge. It doesn't even exist. Most of it's just a bunch of nonsense a group of crazy humans believe in. They make up most of it trying to sound mysterious," as she said that she brought her arms close to her body and placed the back of her hands beneath her chin to wiggle her fingers. "It's superstition, noting more and nothing less." She folded her arms across her chest stubbornly. "I can't believe you find it remotely interesting."

"Be that as it may, we still must investigate. Pick up a book and we might get through this box before tomorrow. Then we might have more personal time to spend with Shinji," she said, a small blush betraying her inner thoughts about time spent with their mate.

Saki jumped up, waving a finger at the other Sekirei. "Woah girl! There are rules for that sort of thing. You agreed that is my turn," she enunciated every syllable getting her finger as close to the mist-users face as she dared. The last she wanted was another wet set of clothes. She could vaguely hear the dyer over a particularly quiet part of the background music.

"I know," Taki replied, narrowing her eyes at the offensive finger. "Put it away," she warned as even as she could.

"What? Scared? Of a finger?" Saki scoffed.

"Really? You want to go there? Do you real want to go there?" She clenched her fist as wisp of mists began to fall. "Do you know how much water a human body can take before they drown? I wonder what it might takes to drown a Sekirei," she asked rhetorically, examining her nail as she smirked ever so slightly.

Saki smiled widely and leapt backwards on to the couch. Fists clenched she bounced slightly, the couch speaker faintly in protest at her sudden weight. "Let's go! No powers, just fists!"

"Hmpfh, do you have confidence without your blades or is that just bravado talking?" The wisps of mist vanished in an instant as Taki took a strange stance.

She was perplexed by the stance her sister-Sekirei had taken. It looked nothing like any of the forms she had learned from the humans various fighting styles. "I'm surprised. You actually look like you can fight in hand to hand. And here I was thinking you were more of a range or ambusher," she mocked. This fight was personal. It was over her mate. Though technically speaking Taki was also Shinji's mate, but it was personal. This was a matter of who would have the next turn with him. Fighting over that was more than appropriate.

Pain.

Burst of light.

Pain.

Blinded.

Pain.

Twisting.

Pain.

Withering.

Pain.

Colors.

Pain.

Forever.

Pain.

Instantaneous.

Pain.

Saki fell to her knees, gasping for breath. She fell off the couch, her head hit the table. Papers scattered. Fear for her mate was all she could feel. The bond, weak as it was, shouldn't have given such strong emotions unless something was wrong. Her vision swam slightly as she shivered uncontrollably. What was Shinji experiencing? What was happening to her mate?

She struggled to lift her head. Her body was wracked with shots of pain. Taki was no better off. She reached for her sister-mate, yearning for comfort. The pain, the pain! Why was it wrong? Pain should be pain. Color that's shouldn't be swarm behind her blurred vision. She felt warmth, another's touch. Warmth in her hand of another, she closed her fist not wishing to lose that. She cried out, arching her back and hitting something. Bodily pain compounded with mental pain.

Then it stopped.

Her head throbbed. Her vision swam and her back ached. The colors were gone. The flashes of pain were gone. The world was right again. Her head throbbed at the mercifully fast fading memory. "What…what…" she struggled to get any words out. It was as if the breath had been stolen from her body.

"…bond," Taki replied weakly, squeezing Saki's hand tightly. "Da…danger…"

Saki tried to move, but she could muster the energy needed. It was as if all her inhuman strength had been sucked out by that, she couldn't decide what to call it, experience, she settled for at last. "Have to…have to go to him." She needed to go to her mate, her instincts told her to fly as fast as she could to him. Her heart ached for him. She couldn't move. She struggled in vain. Tears of rage and helplessness welled up as she lay helpless on the floor.

Slowly her vision darkened. Weariness overtook her and she felt sleep coming. She tried to resist, but her body turned against her. She needed to stay awake, for her mate, for her sister-mate, for her pride. She couldn't…

She heard sobs of self-hatred from her sister-mate.

… she wouldn't…

Her sister-mate's hand was warm. Warmth was good.

…give…

Warmth was comforting. The world slowed down.

…in…

…

* * *

><p>"Rei." A name uttered with no inflection, no emotion, nor anything even vaguely resembling a mortal's voice. A mechanical voice, a fake voice for a man who had lost his; a machine's voice that uttered the name of a soul that he knew nothing of. "Begin the experiment."<p>

"Yes." The answer was soft, a barely audible woman's whisper. The world darkened as the lights quickly faded away. The glass panels were concealed by smoky black interlocking hexagons. "Subject 636 are you prepared?"

As those dead words passed through pale lips, the center of the room was illuminated in a gentle white glow. A tanned, black haired girl, no older than sixteen or seventeen, lay there eagle spread and bound on the cold metal table. A fine specimen of humanity's female form, but she trembled and wiggled nervously, a fine blush on her face at her nudity. "Y-yes, I'm ready…I-I'll make it," she answered hesitatingly, her voice cracking.

Naked fear shone in the girl's eyes of Rei stepped out of darkness and into the circle of light she inhabited. Slowly the pale skinned Accursed extended her left hand over the girl's chest. "Subject 636 confirmation granted. Beginning preliminary evaluation," Rei uttered for the sake of the various recording devices watching the operation as was standard procedure for NERV in these darker days.

Smoothly and painlessly she slipped away from the world of humans. The shadowy world of the Angels was a breath of fresh air; every aspect of it fit the desires of her Angelic half. Grays and blacks, wavering physical forms of the Others known as humanity, surrounded her, but she didn't give the figures seated behind the wavering walls a second thought. They were familiar to her human half already.

"Testing for resistance," she stated, her voice echoing and wavering in the world around her. Focusing the world shifted around her. All around the space she had designated as 'her' there bloomed clouds of black orbs stretching onwards into infinity from every direction. Other black orbs in rotated around each cloud of black orbs, tracing circular patterns she could vaguely associate with concentric circles. Reaching out with her other hand she spoke, "Manifesting cutter." Her voice boomed around her, coming from every direction. With her left hand she timed the speed of the rotating black orb and seized it in a single motion. It struggled in her. She felt the raw energy pushed and pulling at her unseen hand. It was easier to think in limited human terms for her. She had no desire to become like the ones she had fought.

"Cutting in three, two, one," she brought the metaphorical blade down, cleanly slicing through the black orb contained by her unseen hand. Color exploded before her eyes. Brilliant white light, hideous purple light, sickly greens and ghastly yellows. She felt her mortal shell tremble at the sensation of those diabolic colors. It might have regurgitated the last meal if she hadn't been the true master of it. The colors flashed over and over, a series of consecutive explosions she had contained within her AT field. They raged, seeking to escape their prison, but she wouldn't let them.

She watched the colors as they exploded. White. Yellow. Purple. Green. White. Purple. Green. Yellow. Green. White. Yellow. Purple. Onwards the colors flashed, one after the other after the other without fail. She vaguely heard screams of pain from world of humans, but it was a distant echo that did not shake her. The subject was in pain. Pain was good. To be Accursed was to be pain, be in pain, and to be with pain.

"Subject 636, biologically capability with the LI is estimated at sixty-seven percent. Conversion rate is zero point zero zero zero three." Rei retreated back to her body, the black orbs vanishing along with the wavering reality gone from her sight in an instant. As she settled back in she felt the shell's weariness. The stress was wearing away at the shell and would require the basic biological imperatives to be meant once this operation was complete.

"Rei, look down."

A woman's voice that caused anger to rise. A foe? No, a rival? Disliked? Yes, that was it. Ritsuko Akagi. She had issued a command to her. Should she listen? Yes, her thoughts were disoriented as the delirium of two realties crashed down around her, a silent cascade ripping and tearing up all before it. She made her shell bend its head. The other biological female, they were related by no other means than gender of the human species, screamed and withered in pain.

The restrained subject bucked and tried to touch her belly. Red blood blossom over blackened flesh forming a two dimensional image of what might be called a star. The flesh stank and smoked slightly in the after effect of the cut. The subject screamed harder, louder and at a rising pitch. It annoyed her shell's ears. The human hearing mechanism where extremely venerable to most sounds that they couldn't hear and easily broken. Much like sight and form, she found the human shape limiting, but the Angel shape impractical to her purposes.

"She bleeds," Rei stated. What was the doctor trying to point out? "We may proceed with the implantation procedure. The Angel Flux Barrier is malleable for only a brief time. The LI must be implanted soon." Time was running out for Subject 636. The cut she had made would be contained by the body for only a limited time. Then the energy would be released into her body. The effect would be a cascading effect that would rip her atoms apart, electrons separating from their clouds and releasing their energy all at once. Once that process began Subject 636 would begin to be incineration from the inside out. The last piece of her body to go would be her brain. She would feel everything as the incineration process had repeatedly been shown to leave the nervous system alone. If Subject 636 were to be successful then the LI would have to implanted soon.

"Commander we can't proceed with just a sixty-seven percent!" Dr. Akgi protested, leaving the intercom on. "The threshold of success is too low for the second stage binding."

The Subject was whimpering in pain, an improvement over screaming for her human hearing. Subject 636 looked towards with tearful eyes. She could name the emotions in those eyes. Fear. Pain. Begging. Agony. She could name all of them and more, but that was all they were; words. Words without meaning to her. The other two, Shinji and Asuka, had tried to teach her about the meaning, but she couldn't understand because they didn't understand themselves. They were like her; a good thing for her. Even her now dead cousins had been in each other company in their prisons as they waited to surge froth. She could feel them even though hundreds of miles might separate them. They were one and the same, three parts of whole.

"Is Subject 636 replaceable?" The cold voice of the Supreme Commander of NERV answered from the unseen heights.

For a moment Dr. Akagi was silent. Rei heard the faint noise of a pen over the intercom that she assumed belonged to the doctor based her pervious use of the intercom. She regarded Subject 636 curiously as the subject continued to look at her, craning her head as best she could against the neck restraints. Subject 636 desired an end of the pain, help, aid of some kind she realized. The looks she was received were similar to the ones of her fellows when their human bodies were in pain though Subject 636 didn't have the stormy blue eyes or the angry blue eyes of her fellows. Subject 636 was not one of them. "Estimated time to internal incineration is three minutes and fourty seconds. Physcial incineration in four minutes and tweteny seconds," Rei informed dutifully. This was a science, she had to be as accurate as the data gathered from the other failed experiments.

"We can't lose 636! The Committee on my ass for losing the last thirty candidates with no results to show. The candidate's pool is shrinking and we have nothing to show for it! Six hundred and thirty two failures! The only successes were natural born ones! There's only so many children who might, MIGHT, fit the criteria and half are already dead!"

Dr. Akagi's voice was strained with exhaustion and misplaced anger. Rei knew that she misplaced the failure of the GOSPEL Project to create more like Shinji and Asuka on herself when the fault was beyond her control. Humans simply weren't ready to rejoin the Angels. Their weak bodies were unable to comphrened the full glory and might of the Angels and others like those savage brutes. Her cousins were savage brutes, mindless things driven by an old commandant that bore not place in the modern world.

"We have no options. The Committee wants to see results. We must produce another Accursed and show them the GOSPEL is worth the investment." The commander's voice was steady and smooth, never changing as he turned away the chief scientist's fears. "Rei, begin the Jericho Procedure."

"Understood," Rei answered and slipped back into the Angel state.

"Medical team to the procedure room! Stop her!"

She heard Dr. Akagi's command to try to stop her. Her orders did not allow any to interfere with the Jericho Procedure. It was a simple matter to fuse the doors shut as the medical team started to open them. With her unmatched might she pulled the doors back together, fusing them into one as she did. There was no way in or out for a human now. This room was meant for that purpose. No explosives short of destroying the entire Geofront, a feat that would require all the energy of the human race released at once at the very least, would bring down the walls.

Turning her attention back to the Jericho Procedure, she heard Dr. Akagi railing and ranting over the intercom. Threats were issued, but she ignored them. They were the buzzing echoes in her mind and worth just as much. Gendo Ikari's words were amongst the few whose worlds actually mattered. The other two whose words she would listen too were far beyond this bleak place of endless pain and misery for all of them.

Around her she began to calculate the requirements for the LI's in her mind, her thoughts appeared as screens around her; a physical manifestation needed to keep her human brain from overheating. As she did so she reached into the human world. From high above she gently tugged down the numerous robotic arms after severing the controls from the controls in the command room. Syringes, saws, laser cutters and other medical devices approached Subject 636, who had once more begun to twist and turn in fear, whimpering and crying as she did so.

Subject 636 had to be restrained. 636 could not be allowed to move during the Jericho Procedure. Rei swiftly and deftly found the appropriate bodily locations to deactivate 636's higher brain functions and leave 636 temporarily parallelized. "Subject sedated. Commencing first stage of Jericho." The world shifted again and once more she was surrounded by the black clouds. "First stage of Jericho beginning. Estimated time to completion is six hundred and sixty six seconds. Unacceptable. Moving to Jericho Procedure Beta. Estimated time to completion is forty seconds. Creating Infinity Cutter."

She moved the robotic arms into position and activated the laser. Within the black clouds she began to cut. Clouds burst in flashes of colors she ignored. More and more flashes crossed her vision as she both cut through the infinity of atoms of the Subject 636 and used the many robotic arms to slice open the Subject. Taking less than a half a second in human time, she pulled away from the cutting to examine the rate of interior immolation.

Subject 636's organs were failing. The internal body temperature was rising as she cut and cut. The external skin was heating up, but the covering of humans could be replaced. She only carried if it affected the eyes. The eyes were exposed and unprotected. Even as she studied the Subject's condition she continued to use the robotic arms to cut and slice, hack and pull away to reach the muscle and bone below.

From one of the robotic arms, as she continued to cut amidst endless flashes of those damning colors, she pulled out the syringe filled with a glowing blue liquid. Without a wasted moment she used the laser cutter to crave a straight hole into the bone of her upper arm and sent the syringe into the hole with in a single try. Emptying the syringe into the bone marrow, she snatched the implants from another arm. Using several scalpels and several forceps she pulled the muscle and veins away from the bone, leaving a small area just big enough to get the sixteen metal implants through one at a time.

The lower functions of the Subject's brain registered the wrongness. No human should have felt this feeling and it knew that. It turned to its fight or flight response and tried to flee. Instinctively it knew that she was far too powerful to fight. With a quick flick she forced he thrashing Subject to remain still. She checked the internal immolation process and knew it was a lost battle. "Subject 636's liver will fail in thirty seconds. The rest of the Subjects organs will fail within thirty-three seconds of that. Estimated time to complete Jericho Procedure Beta seventy seconds. Ending Jericho prematurely, unable to continue."

The Subject was a loss. The Jericho Procedure was incomplete and she could not continue. It would be a waste of valuable resources to give this failed Subject anything more. She pushed the robotic arms back into their cradles high above in the darkness, let the muscle and skin fall back onto bone and retruned to her regular state. Instnaly Subject 636's body reacted. It's higher brian fucntiosn returned with fifteen seconds to spare.

"Save her Rei! We can't lose another one!" Dr. Akagi screamed at her.

"It is unprofessional to scream Dr. Akagi. The immolation process is too far along. Even if I were to intervene then Subject 636 would be left in a half melted internal state from which no human will ever recover. The cost of supporting such an existence would strain NERV unnecessarily in terms of both time and money."

"Fine, but I'm not explaining this to the Committee. You will be," she retorted stiffly. "You can ask for another subject, not me."

"Commander, it seems that the stress of the last two months has taken a toll on Dr. Akagi. I would suggest mandatory leave for at least a week with no access to the MAGI," she offered to the Commander. The Subject was withering in pain. Tears no longer flowed, having been dried up by the Subject's own body. Her skin was reddening all over her body as the internal organs began to the final step to immolation. Unfocused eyes rolled back into the Subject's head as the Subject's face began to brighten.

"An excellent idea Rei." There was no praise in the elder Ikari's voice. "Consider it so Dr. Akagi. One week with rescinded access to the MAGI. I do not want to see you on this base until the end of the week. Am I understood?"

"Yes sir,' the doctor said sharply, a hint of anger in her voice.

It seemed that her estimation to the time of external immolation had been wrong. She had been off by several milliseconds. She heard footsteps as Dr. Akagi left the command-observation room. Rei took several large steps backwards as the body of Subject 636 glowed brighter. It was a pain to clean up superheated organs from her clothing and she had using up many of the spare lab coats, like the blood stained one she had worn into the room.

Idly she noted that there was a bloody hand print from the Subject staining the front her jacket. It seemed as though her human body had moved slightly and come into contact with one of Subject 636's hands. In a way she knew that it could be seen in a far more poetic light, but she had never understood the human desire to try to express concepts through words. Words were inherently flawed ideas. How could words ever reflect the perfection of reality?

The other two understood that all too well. Concepts of beauty portrayed in words were an insult. Asuka had broken the arm of a male who had the audacity to recite a poem about his infatuation with her. Shinji had walked past a girl who tried to claim she loved him when she began to spout romantic drivel. Love and words, two concepts humanity never understood and the ultimate insult to her and those like her.

They needed no words between them. They felt each other. They knew each other. Nothing another human could bring would ever change that. Humans were limited and flawed, seeing only what they wanted to see. They could never compete with the affection of those who had seen perfection. There was no way, no vehicles know existed to allow a human to experience what the three of them had undergone to become what they were.

The stench of flesh cooking drew her attention outwards. The body of Subject 636 was little more than a blackened pile. She had missed the full immolation, but she had seen it enough. All that remained of 636 was that blackened pile that still glowed hotly in places, hidden embers blazing away from the depths of the remains.

"Rei, the door," the commander reminded her.

She nodded and walked to the door. It was more efficient to open the door and walk out rather than open it from her position and have to move past the medical and cleanup teams no doubt waiting on the other side. "Subject 636 has been destroyed. Experimental Jericho Procedure proved to be inefficient. Suggestions include reviewing footage in an effort to understand what happened to Subject 636. All traces of Subject 636 must be destroyed in accordance with NERV-GOSPEL protocol."

She looked down to the bloody handprint, the last physical evidence of Subject 636 that meant link to back to them. The lab coat would have to be destroyed. She unbuttoned the garment and dropped in on the floor as she returned to the Angel state. Destroying the lab coat was as simple as generating heat by vibrating the atoms that composed it for less than a second at extreme velocities. When the coat was gone, the last crisp of the bloody handprint flashed away nothingness, she undid the fused door. As the doors opened she stepped forward and the humans gathered outside the door frozen.

With naked fear they parted before her, wary and watchful of her every action. They feared her and loved her because they could not understand her, it was as simple as that. Did not the holy books of some religions call fear of their gods the first step to wisdom? What was a god then? An entity that humans could not understand perhaps? She frowned and the humans flinched. That question deserved better answer than that. It was insufficient to properly answer the question.

That train of thought stayed with her as she walked upwards towards the more populated parts of base. Her body demanded food and then sleep. Did a god need food or rest? Or was that an endless paradox of existence, much like humanity? Everywhere she passed other humans she was subjected to fearful stares. She was fear incarnate to them, a monster bound to them by thin chains, but it was all she had ever known. She accepted it, though she had yet to embrace it. Embracing such an idea would result in an unfavorable relationship with the elder Ikari and a positive one with her fellows. Perhaps that wasn't so bad after all. Gendo Ikari wasn't one of them anyway.

* * *

><p><em>AN: This fic is an enjoyable episodic adventure that proves to be a nice break from my original fiction. The next chapter will see the start of the Plan and a hunt through a city of superpowered aliens in the dead of night. What could possibly go wrong? Oh let us count the ways...  
><em>


	5. Chapter 5 Signs

The hybrid raged in her cell, stalking about when she wasn't lashing out at the padded walls in a blind frenzy. The remnants of the straightjacket were mere shreds, leather straps ripped apart by her inhuman strength. With long, quick steps she leapt towards the far wall and began to pound on it with small fists, screaming in that strange tongue of the hybrids which no regular human could perceive as anything other than shrill screeches.

After a minute of fruitless pounded, the walls were thickly padded and beyond the white pads lay several feet of null-steel, she gave up and began to restlessly stalk around the small room. Over sixteen days she had exhibited the same behavior, never stopping to sleep even once. More than one of the staff doctors had acknowledged that the human part was too deeply suppressed to give the hybrid any chance of a biological imperative to sleep. The rings around her eyes and the general haggardness of the body, for he no longer felt that there was anything human left inside, spoke of the endless days in this artificially light cell.

"Doctor Roderick, what is the status of the null fields?" The cold, flat voice of the elder Ikari chilled the room with the utterly inhuman, synthesized voice.

"Th-They're working at fifty-two percent. It's enough to suppress the more advanced abilities, but not enough to damage the specimen or cause irreversible damage. In fact," the sandy blond haired scientist shuffled nervously as he paused to gather his courage, wiping sweating palms nervously on the inside of the pockets of his lab coat, "I'd like to request we lower the null field to study the full effect of this hybrids powers. We've never seen a combination of mastery in areas quite like this one. I'd like to get her into the Cage and what its capable of in battle. It might even help in Project Infinity if we can get some adequate readings of the Yoldaner Field."

The shadowy, imposing figure of Gendo Ikari was silent from behind the metal desk. His arms moved, blurs adjusting their position on the armrest of the chair he sat in. "A wondrous thing, this is the first real hybrid that humanity has created since Rei. Imperfect as it is, it is still lacking. It will never be like Rei and that is a pity. Tell me Doctor Roderick what the differences between Rei and this monster?" There was no opinion in his voice, only a cold statement of facts. The eight year old girl was long dead, her psyche ripped apart for the monster inside her to feast.

The doctor looked flustered and nervously looked this way and that. "Plenty," he said anxiously after a moment, glancing furtively towards the door. "Rei is or rather was," he added in a small nervous voice, but went on after the elder Ikari didn't react, "the perfect hybrid of human and Angel. Since the Angels aren't fully material we trapped that part within a semi-ambient null faction field. The new hybrid is the opposite, a mindless monster trapped in a sack of flesh without too much human modification. The Foundation didn't even try to inject any sort of self-regulating null field much his chagrin. It had forced NERV to expend the extra funds for the generators, funds that were no longer endless.

"Indeed. There is hardly a difference between man and monster. The supposed line doesn't exist, it never existed except as an abstract creation of the collective," the elder Ikari answered his own question, ignoring Roderick's answer. "You may proceed with whatever tests you wish doctor, but you must be in the same room when you conduct your experiments."

"W-what?" Roderick sputtered indigently, taking a weak step towards the commander. "That's insane! I'll be ripped to shreds or burnt alive by corrosive acid!"

"And?" Gendo replied flatly. He had issues a death sentence and it seemed that the criminal refused to comply quietly.

"Do you want me to die?" he snapped angrily, naked fear in his eyes. His looked towards the door, ready to bolt as if that would save him from the fate he had asked for.

"You asked for this. You asked to conduct the experiments and I require you do them yourself by hand. Is there a problem with that?" Roderick's fate had been decided hours before. The good doctor was preparing to run to the press and blow the whistle on their research. Section Two had was already storming his apartment ready to seize the information Roderick had copied off the MAGI during the last diagnostic sweep when the security systems had been down for brief time. "In fact, you'll start right now."

Fear of certain death was apparent as Roderick's face lost all color. The man bolted for the door, but didn't get halfway before the two Section Two agents tackled him to the ground. The two men, lean foreigners, pushed the man down as he clawed at their immaculate clean suits. Binding Roderick with a pair of handcuffs they forced him to stay with them as they pushed him out of the room.

Metal fingers and human flesh interlaced, Gendo laid his chin on his human left hand, relishing the sting of cold on what remained of his nerves. Pain was proof of life, this reality was no dream or illusion, but such matters of the flesh and philosophy were not his concern. He intently studied the hybrid. The girl's body was stills stalking around. So young and yet the Foundation had given her this body. Such hybrids deserved better, stronger bodies specially breed over a lifetime for the sole purpose of becoming true hybrids. A child's body was lacking in the power that even a teenager or young adults body possessed.

"What a waste Theresa," he muttered to himself. She was too reckless at times even as the leader of the Foundation. It was as if she had all the money in the world to burn on worthless projects, he wasn't willing to put it past her to have ties to underground elements who would like to have such an attack dog as their failed hybrid. Even as a failure, this hybrid could be sold off to some kingpin as an attack dog that most organizations would be hard pressed to stop.

The hybrid had stopped pacing and looked upwards towards the one-way glass, towards him. For a brief moment he saw the pained flash of a human intellect in those wide eyes, glassy with unshed tears, but it was replaced by the dead stare and snarl of the monster she was. He hummed thoughtfully. It seemed a portion of the original personality still existed somewhere in the depths of the monster's psyche. That was the trouble with hybrids. Either the human personality held control and they had no power or the monster took over bringing with it all the powers NERV and the Foundation needed. His own hybrids were special cases, but he only had three of them. For a moment he considered if the Foundation might have made a breakthrough in the psyche splicing of the monster and the human. This hybrid would bear more observation until he could be sure. That would be a step forward unlike any other made such the first unstable second generation hybrids.

The door to the room briefly opened and Roderick was hurled in, a black bag thrown in after him and the door quickly shut. The man, wide and fearful of the monster who watched with unblinking eyes, ran to the door and began to pound on it. He started screaming things, but Gendo set the intercom to one-way, briefly moving his metal hand away from the fleshy one. Noting with some satisfaction that the entire seen was being recorded by another terminal, he watched as Roderick faced his final moments.

The hybrid retreated back to opposite wall and began to slowly pace with hunting eyes. This was the scene of a cat and mouse locked in a room with only one victor. Open tears ran down Roderick's face as he begged not to let him die, or so Gendo read from the man's lips moving. The hybrid seemed to have decided that the man was prey and not a threat as it started to move towards him with long slow steps.

"Has is started already?" Ritsuko said as she entered the room, bringing with her the scent of coffee.

"Indeed. Dial down the null-fields. Forty percent," he commanded. Roderick had turned about and seen the hybrid approaching, causing him to dive for the black bag. He was desperately rifling through it, trying to find some way to defend himself with the handful of prepared scientific instruments.

"Forty percent, are you sure? It might break the inner door at that level?" Ritsuko questioned as she walked to the front most command console and sat her mug of hot coffee down.

"Do it. Doctor Roderick wished to test the hybrid with more power. We will oblige him this once," he answered. Roderick had pulled the null-field detector, a boxy yellow thing, and started to brandish it around like a club as if the hybrid would be scared off by such actions.

"Dropping the null-field to forty percent in three, two, one," the faux blonde said without a tremble.

It was proof of her loyalty to him that she willing contributed to this action even when it reached the point most reasonable people would have backed off and blown the whistle on him. The fact that they both had enough dirt on each other to put the other in prison for life was a mere check. They were accomplices to the bitter end and would hang together for crimes against humanity, if the United Nations ever found out the truth of NERV and decided to turn on them again.

The hybrid's eyebrows rose as the room grew lighter for a second, then it darkened as the monster came out with all its power. Roderick looked helpless and pitifully towards the one-way glass that had once spared him from facing the hybrid, but now only showed his reflection. With a feral snarl the hybrid was upon him, biting and clawing the arm with the null-field detector. In a show of strength, it shattered the upper arm in half and ripped the rest of the arm free of his body, throwing it aside. The man fell to the ground clutching what remained his arm, crying and screaming.

The hybrid wasn't done; it started for him again with greenish flames licking at its knuckles. Roderick screamed as he saw it coming again, a murderous look in its face. The hybrid's mouth opened and moved for a moment, but it was too quick for Gendo to read. It leapt towards the cowering, whimpering scientist and its fist shattered his head like an overripe watermelon. Blood and brain decorated the wall like the tribute to demonic god such beings might worship; very little was known of demonic culture if they even had such a thing.

"It said something," Ritsuko stated sharply as they watched the hybrid start to lick the blood and brain matter out of the ruining head, occasionally spitting out bits of bone.

It was a disgusting scene, but he forced himself to watch the gruesome scene from start to finish. A part of him wondered the monster would eat the whole body except the bones, but he didn't have the time to watch it eat. He still had an organization to run, cults to hunt, XDMs to put down and a restoration to commence. "Suppress the hybrid and review the tape. Find out is it said anything."

"Anything else? Should I lock this footage up in the Epsilon-Zeta file or do you want it on a separate cloud sever?"

"The cloud sever, the MAGI are under too many attacks each day to ensure that file is safe." The world, in the wake of the Angel War's official end, had taken to trying to take over the MAGI and, failing that repeatedly, proceeded to try to hack them. Everyone from foreign governments to other groups like the Foundation tried to read NERV's files held on the MAGI and he returned the favor. He had created a whole new division just to hack those who tried to hack the MAGI and Section Seventeen was never bored. "Bury it deep. the world can never see this. Only you and I will remember," he instructed pointlessly, his sharp scientist was too smart to forget.

She hummed her response and nodded. The room lapsed into silence that was quickly broken by the low sound of rubber impacting the metal floor as he left the room.

* * *

><p>His apartment was silent expect for the voices on the all but muted TV. Shinji idly leafed through another of the seized materials not expecting to find much of anything. This journal was clearly that of a grunt who had no idea what the cult was really doing or how they were doing it. Tossing the small journal into one of empty boxes with a sigh, he felt the urge to get some rest creep over him. It had been a long exhausting day, thanks in no small part to Miya. The overstuffed couch was comfortable, but he couldn't sleep, not until he knew what had happened to Taki and Saki.<p>

Once he returned to find them knocked out on the ground he had put in the call to Takami. Within minutes she had landed her medical helicopter on the rooftop and with her full team of doctors and nurses had taken over his apartment. They had agreed that the two Sekirei needed closer medical attention than his apartment could provide.

"…and in other news tonight, a robbery at a local paint shop."

As he heard the news reporter, a pretty young woman showing just enough cleavage to attach attention and not look scandalous, his attention was captured. This was the fourth such robbery of paint shops. He leaned forward, studying the footage as it was shown.

"Last night six unknown robbers broke into this small family run paint store." In the background there was a number of police surrounding a small, squat grey building with a number of banners hanging off the roof. The name was obscured to protect the identity and the reporter hadn't been any more helpful. "They picked the backdoor and entered through the storage room. Video recording exist, but the police have yet to release them. According to the owners the only things stolen was all the yellow paint, several gallons in total, and the small amount of yen left in the cash register overnight. This is the fourth robbery and theft of yellow paint, causing local police to link to other break-ins around the Shin Tokyo region. One can only wonder what sort of crazy kids would need that much yellow paint for. Back you in the studio…"

He lost interest at the story about a broken gas main somewhere in the city outskirts and leaned back, thinking. One break in was nothing to set off any alarms. Two was a chain robber but hardly his problem. Three robberies of the same material was taken each time was enough to raise his suspicion, but it was this fourth one that tipped him off. It was too strange that each time only yellow paint had been taken along with pocket change. What he exactly he had on his plate was still a mystery and could yet be unrelated to anything in his line of work.

"A cult?" he wondered aloud, placing a hand over his eyes for a moment of darkness. "Whatever," he said dismissing the notion for the immediate future. He returned to the journal he had been leafing through and started reading though the pointless ramblings. Many were nothing more than updates about the owners life, where they ate, what they ate, inside jokes, and idle fiction of an overzealous mind. As his mind began to wander over the mindless readings, he was forced back to reality as he came towards the end of the book. He read the abnormally shaky script as best he could aloud just to make sure he wasn't seeing things in his lethargy.

"July, 19. Today the Stranger came to our meeting. The Chief was visibly shaken when the Stranger entered. He told us the Stranger was gone four years ago. He said it failed, nothing came to us. He lied. The Stranger was silent. He(she/it?) didn't even seem to touch the ground, but I couldn't see the Strangers feet. Tokami said it was so, he was sitting along the aisle. Tokami's dead too. He hung himself after the meeting, had a haunted look when he told me about the floating thing directly after the meeting. The Chief tried to talk to the Stranger, but he (it?) didn't stop. It just…flowed I guess is the word, up on the stage and in front of the Chief. The Stranger stood in front of us, couldn't see the Chief from our seats, but we heard him. He screamed. The Chief. The Chief screamed. It was bloodcurdling and the Chief doesn't scream like that. He's not a little girl. No grown man screams like that. I swear it will haunt me till the end of days unless Our Stagemaster is merciful. How else could the Chief, who's never shone much emotion let alone pure fright, be as broken as that shell that stepped out from behind the Stranger. He had this weird yellow marking, kinda like the sort you get from lipstick on his forehead and he started talking in some strange language. It might have been Russian or at least that's what Alec thinks it was, then he fell down all pale and shrived up like he had aged fifty years in a few seconds. After that I ran. I don't want to die! That's why I'm here. I don't want to die! Ever!"

The handwriting became worse and worse until he could no longer make out entire sentences. He could make out words like 'screams', 'running' and 'Stranger' but there was little beside that. It was clear that this was a cult, but the Stranger could be a monster. It wasn't uncommon in antiquity for cults to rise up around powerful, intelligent creatures seeking to use humanity for their own gain. The centaurs had one such secret cult until Alexander the Great had slaughtered them and ended the rape of women by that particular monster. This could easily be a similar matter, but the type of monster was like none he could recall off the top of his head. The official reports when NERV had seized the documents hadn't said anything about a monster being present. It was possible that if this Stranger was a monster it was long gone by the time NERV arrived.

Looking for a cell phone took a minute as he hadn't placed it back in his pocket and had search through the messy coffee table. Pulling open the address book he froze, his finger poised over the call button to an address only labeled as 'A'. He hesitated as unanswerable questions formed. Would she even listen? Did he want to have to hear her sweet voice after his betrayal? Did she want to hear from a man who couldn't even keep himself confined to her? Would she bring up that oath he had sworn to her in the bloodstained wastelands beneath a bloody sky and surrounded by the bloated corpses of a million dead?

She would have the answer. He knew it. She knew the mythology of the world backwards and forwards. There was very little about monsters she didn't know about from the old stories and tales. That had made her the perfect slayer, the perfect hunter of monsters who plagued the old lands of Europe for a millennium and then some. There was a reason his angel of war had been sent to exterminate the monsters there and himself or Rei.

"No," he answered his unspoken questions. He didn't need her help. He would find the answer himself, through other channels if he needed, but he wasn't ready to face her. Not yet at least. It was running away again, but he couldn't do it. It was still surreal, his betrayal and the acts of consummation that followed it. Oathbreaker fit him well beside other titles he deserved, coward foremost amongst them.

Scrolling through the address book he found the address he wanted. Pressing the call button he put the phone to his ear with a sigh. He needed information and that meant dealing with the one man who was able to bring him to the edge of wanting to stab someone. There was no getting around it. He had to go to the Serpent no matter the price, even with the venom of the snake pulsing in his veins.

"Hullo?"

Shinji licked his lips and mentally prepared to maintain his cool. "I need the Serpent," he said in English. The American on the other end was hardly an American, having been exiled from the United States when there still was a United States. Last time he had checked the Serpent was still based in the ruins Hong Kong, still living on a collection of barges tied together.

"Ho-ho! Is that you my pretty little friend?"

"Al, focus," he said warning the other man. The Serpent, or Al Federicks, was amongst the foremost monster information brokers up until the Second Impact. Second Impact had wrecked the few monster hunting communities in the regular world, leaving most mere shells and only the more extreme monastic monster hunters had any strength left to defend the world. The Pacific Harrowing, one of the only operations ever jointly undertaken by NERV and the Foundation, hadn't been possible without the Serpent's information and for that alone we was willing to put up with the man.

"Right, right. Of course, you're always all business and no play. Really NERV needs to lighten up, otherwise you blokes might go all emo on the world and kill us all."

Al was seamlessly slipping from accent to accent and he only left a headache for Shinji. "Pick an accent and stay with it please," Shinji implored.

"Fine, no accent then," Al said coyly, "You do so love to play hard to get with the fake bossy attitude of yours. What do you? How can the Serpent of Tiamat help his lovely friend with on this fine, er…" he paused for a moment, "yep, fine sunny day?"

"I need info on a certain type of monster that might be in Japan," he said knowingly full well what the next words out of Al's mouth would be.

"Why don't you call that sweet piece of ass you had on you're arm last time we met? She knows this bullshit field almost as well I do."

"Bullishit field?" he iqnuiered, his curiosity raised even though he knew he might reject it.

"No offensive to your girl, but she a shitty scientist. This is a science after all, the study of weird and wild creatures who want to eat us…or rape us in the ass. Fucking lamia! Tails ain't supposed to go into asses like that… Tell her thanks for wiping those whores out a few years ago. Can't exactly talk to her after I tried my last stunt…"

"You tried to fondle her breasts in front of our troops," he stated flatly. "You deserved everything you got. From both of us," he reminded the man.

"Aye-aye I shan't forget my captain! Anyway where was I…of yeah! Shitty scientists and all that. Yeah so she's great at killing these beasties, but that's only half the science. You have to watch 'em, observe them for while in their natural habitat. What they eat, where they live, how they fuck and all that. Word to the wise, never go into the Balkans during the late spring. My leg still has phantom pains…"

Shinji rolled his eyes. There was something he would rather not know about people. Al was one of those people who simple had no sense of decent conversation and let anything and everything relevant spill out, including strange adventures and putting things in places they should not be. "Focus," he reminded the Serpent sharply.

"…ain't she off hunting-"

"Shut up," he hissed, cutting Al off before he could go on. "This line isn't fully secure!" MBI was intercepting all transmissions throughout the greater Shin Tokyo area. NERV was also tracking his phone conversations, but he had come to accept and, at times, even appreciated that MAGI's recordings. Alibis were powerful tools in certain legally gray areas he was forced to sometimes work in.

"Fine, but all I'm saying is she could learn some things from those things she going after. I met a female one once in bar. Best night of my life, until the whole feeding thing and staking her through the head thing. That does tend to end any sort of excitement down south, I mean at least for me, the whole blood soaked fucking is no turn on. At least for me others meh! What do I care about others kinks?"

"Kill me now…" Shinji groaned, kneading his forehead. "I didn't need any of that…" This was way he rarely call Al. Perhaps the MAGI would have been a better option in this case than Al. At least then he wouldn't know about Al's fetish adventures. Sex with monsters was never a good idea for the human, even if they were semi-intelligent, never mind the highly intelligent ones. It was strange to think some did in fact get off to such actions, albeit in the growing virtual world.

"So what's our mystery monster?" Al asked suddenly choosing this moment to focus on the matter at hand.

Shinji uttered a silent thankful prayer to whatever might be listening when Al chose to focus. "From what I gathered it might glide or at least have a fluid motion. Leaves a yellow mark on the forehead of its victims and might be able to drain their life away causing rapid aging. This cult called it 'The Stranger'."

Al sucked in a breath. "Damn! That sounds like fine beastie. I'd say vampire or succubus by the life draining. Could be hag or d'jinn though. You've got enough ruined cities in Japan I wouldn't be surprised to find them hiding out in one of 'em. You got a size?"

"Roughly human sized, if that helps," Shinji inferred from the few cultists had about the creature. "It might be bigger though."

"Hmmm…vampires can't float and supposedly move like a human so they're out. Plus they were all wiped out five hundred years ago. Can't say much about the Catholics, but their Popes knew how to set up one hell of good genocide campaign. Too bad they fucked on the werewolf thing. Suppose that happens though, the whole fucking with the doggy boys the royal families were up to you know. Stupid bastards. Anyway, you said it left some kind of mark? Yellow?"

"Yeah," he answered. He mulled over the bit about werewolves and put it aside for the moment. It was an interesting, if very messed up, little tidbit he hadn't known about. Crossbreeding was, as Al had put it, for "stupid bastards'. He would have added sick to that description as well as a few other adjectives. The results of that breeding were never pretty. It had been a mercy to put down that monstrosity in the South China Sea, though he would never forget those tortured eyes of that damned child.

"I more than that. A shape or something."

"That's all I have right now, yellow. Nothing else," he responded. "What do you think? D'jinn?"

"Yeah. D'jinn or hag witchcraft are the most likely candidates, but I can't see either of them being realistically there. The hags were almost exterminated by the Moors and the D'jinn haven't left the Middle East since the Mongols came to town. It might be one of your Japanese monsters, you know the spirit sort, but I don't think any of them leave such a mark."

"I see. Alright I'll let you go then. Call me if you think of anything," Shinji said with all the politeness he could muster. The fetishes of Al still made him want to throw up and only force of will kept him from retching all over the coffee table.

"Wait a minute there partner! I've got another thought. This might not even be a monster could be one of those…" he paused for a moment in a rare show of tact, "other things you people deal with. A new variant or a newcomer to this battlefield called earth."

Al's words chilled him to the bone, yet made sense. If this wasn't a monster then it must be something else. The question was if it was a newcomer to earth or an old player returned at last. The second option was far worse; such beings were far more terrible and far more powerful than their counterparts. The Angels had been near such beings and even then they had failed against the most powerful of the Angels. The handful of Angels that had come nearly overcame the human race's only defense many times. "Great, thanks a lot. Now I'm sure I'll sleep tonight," he responded dryly.

"I'll call you if I find out anything else. Sleep well and dream of that sweet ass doing all sorts of monstrous things to you," Al replied with sickening sincerity.

"…I hate you," Shinji said after pulling the phone away from his ear. He ended the call to Al's mad laughter. The worst part was that the man meant every word he had said at the end. There were certain things one didn't discuss even with company, but Al gleefully walked over such barriers with a sickening glee as he danced form one side to the other. It was little wonder he had gotten himself unofficially exiled while never committing a single crime other than a single count of public indecency.

* * *

><p><em>AN: And so starts the newest arc. This is planned as a three chapter arc during the opening days of the original Sekirei manga. This chapter is a bit on the shorter side, but there was no natural cutoff between the last part of this chapter and the next scene that was reasonable.  
><em>

_So do you think you know what's going on? If so feel free to speculate as we hit the first real, non-setup arc of this runaway train. Wish I knew where it was going, but not knowing it half the fun!_


End file.
